Endeavors
by HaLire
Summary: We've got these five guys, right? Who else are they trying for but the girls we know and love? Will they succeed? One day seen several ways, each chapter concerning itself with the viewpoint of a single character. Anonymous reviews allowed.
1. The Plan

**Author's Note: **It's the Prologue! The start of a new story! Enjoy! Oh, and I don't own Azumanga Daioh. I'd like to say that I own Sho, Ryu, Ken, Genji, and Marion, but... actually, I might not.

This story takes place sometime during the second year. Everyone's in place, but there aren't any horrible college exams looming in the distance. It's a happy time.

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"**_CAUSE I LIKE HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS AND STUFF_**"

That was over one year ago. Mr. Kimura's statement had generally been regarded by the masses as simple lechery. Despicable, but at least he hadn't acted upon it.

In this case, the masses are probably correct.

Still, that opinion is not held by all. Some students claim to see past the initial shocking statement itself and into the heart of Mr. Kimura, as disgusting as that sounds. These students claim that Mr. Kimura is no different from other teachers.

Actually, that's not entirely correct.

Rather, they claim that he's different from other teachers, but not in the commonly perceived fashion. All people, they argue, are somewhat perverse, but Kimura is more honest than the average person. These students see Kimura as a noble individual who is not afraid of the opinions of others, who isn't afraid to lay his heart bare for the world to see.

This is their story.

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"Prrrring!"

There. The school day was over, and not a moment too soon. Students packed up what they'd brought to school and started the minor trek for home.

Most of them did, anyway.

Three boys walked together in a group, although they seemed to be slightly more focused than your average pack of high school punks. The three walked in a way that was more focused than aimless wandering, but not nearly focused enough to be deemed purposeful. They walked, in short, as though they knew where to go but not what to do once they got there.

The boy with somewhat messy brown hair broke the silence. "Sho, Ryu... do you guys have any idea what Genji's little meeting is all about?"

"I've got no idea, Ken." That was Ryu, who looked rather a lot like Ken except with black hair. A palette swap, perhaps.

"He is rather unpredictable," added Sho. Sho, surely enough, had black hair as well, but his was kept much more neatly than Ryu's. "Oh, look, there he is."

Genji looked up at his three friends. They were each taller than he was, and as a matter of fact he looked kind of like Sho sans a few centimeters, but by the way the group coalesced, it was obvious that he had some authority in this little group of friends.

"So, there you three are. Well, it's about time. You see, this is a meeting of terrific importance. As a matter of fact, I think it might even change the way we live for the rest of our high school lives. The subject at hand, of course, is g-"

"Wait! Is it really just the four of us, Genji?" asked Ken.

"No, of course not. We need all five of us for my plan to work."

"Well, shouldn't we wait for the last person?"

"No need to wait," said Ryu. "There's Marion now."

"I'm told you to call me Minoru! Minoru!"

"But Yukari calls you Marion."

"Minoru!"

Marion was a boy. Let there be no doubt about that. His name is due to an unfortunate episode during his birth that will not be detailed right now. It is doubly unfortunate that Marion's hair somewhat resembles Minamo Kurosawa's hair, but he simply can't do anything about that.

"Okay, so the gang's all here," muttered Genji. "I trust that we're all done teasing Minoru, eh?"

"I didn't get any digs in yet," answered Sho.

"And you won't. Listen to me, because this plan's important. Life-changing, even. This could be the biggest event of our lives as high-school boys. I'm not going to lie to you, it'll be dangerous, but should we succeed, the rewards are indescribable."

"Okay, so what exactly are we trying to do?" asked Ken.

"Do you remember, about a year ago? When Kimura-sensei made his declaration in class?"

"Yes, we were all touched." answered Ryu.

"Yeah, yeah, we were all touched, but have we acted on it? Has any of us even _tried_ to get a girlfriend yet?"

"No... we've been busy, I guess." answered Marion.

"Exactly! So I propose that we go out and try to get ourselves girlfriends! The act of searching out a companion closer than mere friendship is an integral part of the high school experience!"

"But how, exactly, do you think we do this? I mean, look around you! The girls usually hang out in pairs. Some of us would be left out in the cold, man. That'd suck." said Sho, quickly covering himself with, "Not that I don't want one, of course. Just... you know."

"Not quite! There's one gaggle of girls that's the same size as our little group of friend here!" declared Genji, pointing past the circle of friends.

Their gaze followed his finger, and beset upon a group of girls chatting cheerfully amongst themselves.

"But..." answered Sho, "There's six of them."

Genji stared at him. "Dude... Chiyo-chan does _not_ count. She's like, twelve!"

"Dude, what the hell were you thinking?" asked Ken. "You actually _counted_ Chiyo-chan? Pedo!"

"Pedo! Pedo!" chorused Ryu and Marion.

Genji coughed quietly, and his friends fell silent. "Right, now that all the complications are cleared up, are you all ready?"

"Ready for what?" asked Ryu. "You haven't even given us a plan yet!"

"Divide and conquer, of course! It's hard to ask one of them out when we're in a group, right? But... but if we ask them out separately, when they're alone, they're much more likely to say yes! And, don't you see, girls talk! So then, throughout the day, they'll all find out that their friends are also getting boyfriends, and they won't want to be left out, so it'll become more and more likely that we'll be successful as the plan progresses!"

"So should we each ask one out as the week goes on, or something?"

"No, no, no! We've got to try on the same day! Strike while the iron is hot, lads!"

"Lads..." murmured Sho, more to himself than anyone else. In fact, he was hoping that he wouldn't be noticed right now, lest the cries of "Pedo!" return.

"So then, is this where we argue over who gets which girl?" Ken joked. "Nah, that wouldn't work out."

"Random." Genji said, simply. "I've put all their names in a hat, so we each just reach on in and pull a name out of the hat... and that's the girl we try to woo. No complaining. Fair all the way around. Got it?"

The other four boys nodded. In unison, each one reached into the hat and pulled out a slip of paper, reading it to himself. If any boy was unhappy with his draw, he kept it to himself, bound by the iron code of honor that all boys seem to have.

"Tomorrow's the day, then." said Genji.

His friends nodded towards him purposefully, and then they went their separate ways, each heading home to plan out tomorrow's endeavors.

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**Author's Note**: I know, I know. Oh no, original characters! How dare you try to insert yourself and your friends into the story? 'tis a crime against art! Well, I'll have you know that I don't have friends _or_ a penis, so ha!

In my head, that sounded a lot more impressive. On text... it's kind of meh.

Oh, and because I suck at giving character descriptions, do you remember those five guys that showed up when the girls were talking about Kimura's comment? Yeah, that's them. Sho, Ryu, and Ken are the three in the back, and Genji's the one who was talking. That leaves Marion as the last one, of course... if you really needed help visualizing perfectly average kids.

Anyway, I know that I'm starting a new story and that I've still got _Wanderers_ up and running, but like I said, I had a really cool idea that didn't fit into the _Wanderers_ storyline at all, and so I had to start this one. I'm not ignoring _Wanderers _or anything, but sometimes you've just gotta go with the gut, right? 

As for _Endeavors_, the story is going to take place over the span of just one day. The one day'll be seen from the viewpoint of each character, so here's hoping that I don't mess it up horribly somehow.


	2. Marion's Day

Yah, yah. I don't own Azumanga Daioh. I did create all them there boys, although I based them off of a scene in the show itself. If you care, they're the five boys who object to the girl's opinions of Kimura-sensei in episode four.

Ah, but you probably don't. Either way, enjoy!

As always, reviews provide delicious, delicious food for fanfiction writers. Not nearly as delicious as, say, ice cream, but delicious in a metaphorical sense. Ego-fattening reviews. Yeah.

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Marion walked down the street, the same trek he'd been undertaking for the past year and then some. His friends were grouping together some distance away from the school, same as they'd been doing since they were merely freshmen. Routine.

Today, however, was different.

"So, who'd you get?"

Naturally. Boys are boys, after all, and the next morning, each was curious to figure out which of the girls his compatriots would be shooting for. That's just how they are, after all. Curious children, taking their first steps towards becoming men.

Marion looked at his friends and grinned. He reached into his pocket, pulled out a crumpled little slip of paper, and held it out for them.

Kagura.

"Kagura! You lucky dog, she's a hottie!" cried out Ken.

"Eheh, it's not like there were any girls in that group who were repulsive, right?"

"Yeah, I guess so, but still! Tanned, cute, athletic, you're a lucky son of a-"

"Let's stop it there."

Of course, it didn't.

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By the time the boys had arrived at school, all manner of lewd discussion had quieted down, lest they embarrass themselves in front of their targets. Marion, for one, was pretty glad of it.

He looked around for Kagura, wondering where she was. Yukari's class always started late, after all, and so he could at least start a conversation with her about... anything, really.

_I've got to earn her trust before the day's out, right? She won't go out with me if she thinks that she doesn't know me, so I'll just have to forge a friendship as quickly as possible. To think it would work any other way is silly._

_Ah! There she is, sitting with that girl... Ayumu? Kasuga? Osaka? I wonder who got her?_

Sho walked up, said something to the two girls, and Osaka got up and went off with him.

_No way. It's not that easy._

Marion felt the urge to yell, "Look out! He's a pedo! Peeeedo!" but immediately thought better of it.

_Sho's just handed me an opportunity!_

He walked up to Kagura, grinning calmly, trying to hide his nervousness. She didn't notice him, of course. She was busy staring after Osaka and Sho. "So, Kagura..." started Marion.

"Ah? Yes, what do you want?"

"Eheh, it seems that our friends over there are trying to elope, or something."

"Yeah... weird."

"You wanna go do some entirely friendly eavesdropping?"

"Mm... Okay. Osaka probably wouldn't notice anyway."

The two stood up and crept closer to Osaka and Sho, trying to look inconspicuous.

"So anyway, we should spark up a conversation here, just so that those two don't notice us sneaking up on them."

"Yeah, yeah," replied the tanned girl. "You're... ah, who are you, again?"

_Great start._

"I'm Mar-" started Marion, but he stopped himself when he heard his friend speak.

"So," started Sho, "would you like to be my girlfriend?"

_Sho, you fool!_

"Hmm... Yeah, alrigh', why not?" answered Osaka.

_It's not that easy. No way is it that easy. _

Kagura stared, shocked.

Marion stared, shocked.

Sho stared, shocked.

Osaka smiled back at Sho.

Marion looked towards his girl, and figured that he'd best not fall behind right now. "I'm Marion."

"Ah. Wait, isn't that a girl's name? At the very least... it's not very Japanese."

"Erm... You see, my parents... they were obsessed with 'American Culture'. I don't know what it was with them, but they got completely bonkers over the land across the Pacific. They ate American food whenever possible. They learned random phrases in English and started inserting them into their Japanese for some reason that I can't really fathom. Hell, they watch American cartoons and movies too, but only in the original English with Japanese subtitles. My house is filled with like, Superman posters and Looney Tunes stuff. It's really bizzare. You'd think that it'd be cute, but after a while it just becomes obsessive and... I'm actually afraid to have my friends over now."

"Wait, what's that have to do with your name?"

"I'm getting there. Anyway, they really did like those old cowboy movies. You know, the Wild Wild West. The American dream. Rough and tumble cowboys, right? Well, when my mom was pregnant, they decided to name me after a cowboy. The best of the best, apparently. Someone really huge, really important. John Wayne, manliest of men."

"John Wayne isn't exactly Marion, you know."

"Working on it. Anyway, the problem is that they decided to take it even farther. They found out that John Wayne was simply a stage name, and they decided that their son needed to be true to the American spirit, so they did a little bit of research. They found John's real name: Marion."

_Why'd I tell her all that? What the hell's wrong with me?_

"Wow. That's really... I'm sorry about asking... I didn't mean to open up any thing like that."

"Oh, don't worry too much... Just call me Minoru, please."

"Okay... Minoru." Kagura grinned at him.

_Ah! That smile! It's so... I should tell her... Strike while the iron is hot, right Genji?_

"Kagura, would yo-" started Marion, but he was interrupted once again.

The door slammed open. "**STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING! CLASS STARTS NOW!" **cried Yukari, and that was the end of that.

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Marion only halfway paid attention to Yukari's lecture, thinking about his current situation.

_Well, she doesn't seem to dislike me at all, so that's a good start. Then again, I just spilled out the agonies of my entire existence to her, so maybe she was simply being sympathetic. I'll try again at lunch. Yeah, lunch will be the time to ask her. I'll just walk up and say it straight, like Sho._

His gaze settled on his friend, sitting in front of Osaka. Sho noticed him glancing over, grinned, and gave him a thumbs up. Osaka looked over, grinned, and flashed a peace sign.

_Showy bastard._

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P.E. came and went, but Kagura was too focused on anything for Marion to make his attempt. Then the lunch bell rang, and he hardened his resolve to ask her out.

He headed for the school building, wandering the halls. He saw Genji walk past him, carrying a little boom-box and humming a tune. He passed by Osaka and Sho, who continued to grin at him. Tomo was also there, simply hanging around, although she seemed to be following Genji from a distance. Lastly, he passed by Ken, standing outside Kimura's classroom. Finally he arrived at Yukari's classroom.

Kagura usually ate in Yukari's classroom, despite the fact that everyone had Kimura after lunch. It was understandable. He turned the corner to Yukari's classroom and saw Kagura sitting there, eating lunch. She was going at a hell of a clip, but she was definitely eating lunch.

With Sakaki.

_Damn! Damn damn damn damn! What am I gonna do? The two of them are there together... They'll bolster each other! How am I supposed to ask her out when the other one will be giving me that dirty glare the whole time? What do I do?_

Somewhere in the background, a church bell rang out a deep, haunting tone.

_Oh, that's a terrific omen. Thanks._

A hand clapped on his shoulder. "Hey there, Marion!" It was Ryu. "So, I see that our two are there together, having lunch. So then, what do you say that we try to approach them together? If they support each other, then we will also support each other, yeah?"

"Yeah, okay!"

"Stand or fall, success or failure, we do it together!"

"Yeah!"

"We'll show that bastard Sho that he won't be the only one to get a girl today!"

"Yeah! Let's get them!"

"Let's rock!"

Strangely enough, it seemed as if, to commemorate their unity, someone had started to play a very energetic piece of music, the sort of thing that comes in just as the heroic final battle begins, with accompanying explosions and laser-blasts.

_Let's hope that there aren't too many explosions._

The two boys turned to the pair of girls and were surprised by what they saw. "They're gone!" they cried in unison.

"Split up?" asked Ryu.

"Yeah. Good luck."

"Did you see where they went?"

"Not in the slightest."

Marion turned and walked out the door, and saw another girl standing by Yukari's classroom. _That Kaori girl..._ "Hey, Kaori!" he shouted. "Have you seen Kagura anywhere? I need to ask her something."

"Oh, she headed that way." answered Kaori, pointing in the direction that Genji had been heading. Marion could hear strange music coming from that direction. "By the by, where'd your friend Ryu get off to?"

"Oh, over the other way, I suppose." he answered, walking towards Kagura and the bizzare beat.

"Thanks!" she answered.

Marion saw Kagura standing and watching Genji's... display. He wasn't sure exactly what his friend had been thinking, but at least it was interesting. Still, he had something more important to do than watch his friend make a fool of himself.

"Kagura!" he shouted.

"Ah, Marion! What do you want?" she asked. "Ack! Sorry! Minoru, Minoru! I'm sorry!"

"I... I was just wondering if you woul-" he started.

He was cut off by Tomo, screaming and running down the hallway like a bat out of hell, or a panicked Tomo Takino, which was a considerable amount more frantic. Hot on her tail was Yomi, shouting several things. There was a lot, but amongst it Marion clearly heard, "Tomo Takino! You had best run! If I catch you, I'm going to break every single bone in your body! Afterwards, I'm going to get a medical degree, mend all of your bones and then BREAK THEM ALL AGAIN!"

"Erm, sorry, but I'd better go try to help Tomo," said Kagura, racing after her friends.

Marion stood in the hallway, looking lost and confused, but not looking nearly as lost and confused as Ken was, several steps behind him.

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Kimura's class took far too long to finish for Marion's tastes, although he usually admired the honest teacher. The bell rang, and Marion decided that it was now or never! The day was over, after all, and this was his last chance.

He ran up to her, intercepting her before she could group up with her friends and summon up their piercing glares of disapproval. "Kagura, I have to ask you this! Please listen to me!"

"Ah! What is it, Mari- er, Minoru?

"I was just wondering... if you would like to be... er... that is... if you would want to be my... well, not mine... to be... a couple?"

"Ahm. Minoru..."

"Yes?"

"It's a sweet gesture, really... but how much do you actually know about me?"

"Ah... I know that you're... um... athletic... And fairly kind... and... ah..."

"Exactly. You can't forge relationships in a day, you know."

"Tell that to Osaka and Sho."

"Yeah, Osaka and Tomo are... exceptions."

"I see... Thanks anyway."

"Don't take it hard or anything, you're a nice guy, I guess. It just doesn't work that way. At least we're friends now, right? I mean, before, I just knew you as that guy who looked kind of like Miss Kurosawa."

"Yeah, thanks."

"Gah! Is that a touchy subject too? I'm sorry! Sorry! Sorry!"

"Ah, don't worry about it."

Marion walked out of the school, towards the dumpster where he and his friends usually met up before heading home. He paused for a second in the hallway as something struck him.

_ Tomo?_

He looked over to the group of girls who'd been their "target" and couldn't help but notice that none of them seemed sad, or confused, or... well, they all seemed cheerful enough. It was strange. The girls split and went their separate ways, to their separate homes.

He walked towards the dumpster and noticed that Ken was already there.

"Hey. How'd it go?" he asked.

"Eh. You?"

"Nnh."

"Oh."

"You hear anything about Genji or Ryu?"

"No, I haven't. I still can't believe that it came together like that for Sho."

"Speak of the devil... is that Sho?" Marion said, pointing towards their friend.

"Yeah, I think so... but that's not the way home. He's going in an entirely different direction."

"You don't think that he's headed somewhere with that Osaka girl, do you?"

"Bastard."

"Agreed."

"Nnngh... Hey... is that you guys?" asked the dumpster.

"Waugh!" shouted Ken and Marion, horrified.

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**Author's Notes**: So that's the day as it went for Marion. Is it typical for his four friends? Did their days go better or worse? Who knows? We'll find out in the later chapters.


	3. Ryu's Day

**Author's Note**: Welcome to the second chapter! Mind you, we're back to the morning of that fateful day, except today we walk the steps of our dear boy Ryu instead of that unfortunate Americophile-spawned child Marion! Who's Ryu shooting for? How's he going about it? Will he succeed? Who knows?

Read and review, because I am powered by reviews! Roarargh!

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The sun shone as it had done day in, day out (which were, of course, determined by the sun itself) for some five billion years. It gazed down on a group of boys walking to school, as countless boys had done countless times throughout all of time. Today, however, the sun wasn't merely shining on a group of schoolboys.

Today, the sun was singing. It was singing the song of opportunity.

Ryu gazed up at the benevolent orb in the sky and grinned, enjoying its warmth.

Then, of course, the predictable question pointed itself towards him.

"So, Ryu, who'd ya get?"

"Sakaki."

"Sakaki! You're... joking, right?"

"Nope." Ryu pulled out the paper and flashed it at his friends, affirming his previous statement.

"Ah!" cried out Sho. "How I wish I had your luck! Sakaki... Sakaki's..."

"Stacked. Completely and utterly stacked. A hottie to rival that great ball of fire in the sky," continued Genji.

"Hey, I'm not complaining." replied Ryu, grinning. "Oh, hello Chihiro," he added, as they passed by the girl standing at the entrance to their school.

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The five made their entrance into Yukari's classroom a few minutes before the bell rang, but Yukari's class ran on a schedule that couldn't be defined by a simple bell. Several top-tier physicists and mathematicians are currently working on a formula to properly predict the class's temporal behavior, but it is widely accepted that the Grand Unified Theory will probably come first and be more useful.

Ryu and his friends looked around and tried to locate their general targets. Sho headed one way, and Marion followed after him. Ken and Genji headed another way, leaving Ryu by himself. He glanced around, looking for Sakaki.

_I've got to make my impact, right? I've got to show her that I care, somehow. I've got to show her that I'm different from all the other generic background guys in some fashion, but how?_

He scanned the room once more and saw Sakaki sitting in a desk by the window, watching the sky.

_There she is_,_ watching the sky. _

Ryu had spent the night before thinking about Sakaki, and given her looks, he and most of the other boys had probably spent more than just that night thinking about Sakaki. Yesterday, however, he had come up with a plan.

_Sakaki is a mystery, always looking outside, past the classroom, as though she had something more important to ponder than everyday life, but she's still human, right? Language is what separates people from mere animals, what allows us to move past the slow advance of the evolutionary process into our tremendously speedy technological process, so then it's all about the right words!_

"Sakaki! My dear Sakaki, you're a mystery, wrapped in an enigma, shrouded in uncertainty, and I, with man's customary love for the unknown, would like nothing more than to unravel the mystery, to explore the unexplored! Please, would you grant me this honor?"

Sakaki simply continued to stare out the window.

_Damn. Nothing? Then... I'll have to bring out the big guns!_

Ryu closed his eyes and began to recite,

"Sakaki! Sweet Sakaki! if a name

Dearer and purer were, it should be thine.

Mountains and seas divide us, but I claim

No tears, but tenderness to answer mine:

Go where I will, to me thou art the same--"

"Is that _Epistle to Augusta?" _asked a voice.

"Yes! Yes it is!" Ryu grinned, happy that he'd finally gotten through, and opened his eyes, only to see...

Chiyo.

"It's quite lovely."

"Yeah, it is." Ryu looked over at Sakaki, then looked down at Chiyo.

_I can't do this with her here! She's too young! She wouldn't understand!_

"Why were you reciting Lord Byron's poetry?" asked the prodigy.

_Damn!_

"Ah... er... you see... it's like th-"

"**STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING! CLASS STARTS NOW!**"

_Saved by Yukari!_

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Yukari's class passed despite all of it's temporal weirdness, and while Ryu usually loved English, today he simply could not pay attention in Yukari's class.

_Crash and burn. Not a single response from her... If only Chiyo hadn't shown up, I could have... Well, no reason to dwell on the past. I still have the rest of today!_

_Why's that Osaka girl flashing a peace sign?_

P.E., however, yielded some interesting knowledge.

"Hey," started Ryu, "Where's Sho?"

"Hanging out with that Osaka girl and some of her friends." answered Ken.

'What? Already?"

"Yeah, lucky bastard. Anyway, how're you guys progressing with your girls?"

"Er, we had a pleasant conversation." answered Marion.

"Yeah, me too, but that's it. Genji, Ryu, how about you guys?"

"Not much yet," started Genji, "But the _coup de grace_ is coming up!"

"Uh... I don't think that you're using that phrase entirely correctly," said Ryu. "Anyway, I'm not doing so well yet, but I've got another thing to try."

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Prring! The lunch bell rang, and Ryu raced to the locker rooms, changing quickly. He headed into the building, making a beeline for Yukari's classroom. He noted that Genji, Tomo, Ken, and a few other people were further down the hallway, but he paid them little heed. He had to get to Sakaki, and Sakaki usually had lunch in Yukari's classroom.

He turned the corner, looked in the window and saw Sakaki and... Kagura.

A church bell rang out mournfully.

_Terrific omen, by the way._

He glanced around.

_Can't do it like this! This'll be just like Chiyo, except worse! Kagura will actually know what I'm trying to get at! She'll focus on me, and my will to continue will vanish under her relentless glare! No chance!_

Then he spotted Marion, staring at the two girls too, probably thinking the same thing. Ryu walked over and clapped his hand on Marion's shoulder, grinning. "Hey there, Marion! So I see that our two are there together, having lunch. So then, what do you say that we try to approach them together? If they support each other, then we will also support each other, yeah?"

"Yeah, okay!"

"Stand or fall, success or failure, we do it together!"

"Yeah!"

"We'll show that bastard Sho that he won't be the only one to get a girl today!"

"Yeah! Let's get them!"

_Heaven or Hell!_

"Let's rock!" the boys shouted, clasping each other's hands.

Strangely enough, it seemed as if, to commemorate their unity, someone had started to play a very energetic piece of music, the sort of thing that comes in just as the heroic final battle begins, with accompanying explosions and laser-blasts.

_It begins!_

The two boys turned to the pair of girls and were surprised by what they saw. "They're gone!" they cried in unison.

"Split up?" asked Ryu.

"Yeah. Good luck."

"Did you see where they went?"

"Not in the slightest."

Marion headed down one way, and Ryu went the other, away from that bizzare music. The music, faint but undeniably there, started to increase in energy as Ryu caught up to the tall girl. He ran up to her, but she didn't turn.

_Now's as good a time as any, right?_

"She walks in Beauty, like the night  
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;  
And all that's best of dark and bright

Meet in her aspect and her eyes:

Thus mellowed to that tender light

Which Heaven to gaudy day denies,"

As Ryu finished the first verse, another deep, mournful bell tolled.

_Where are those things coming from?_

Ryu opened his mouth, ready to continue, but was interrupted by a high pitched shriek.

Tomo Takino ran down the hallway, screeching loudly. As she passed Ryu, she grabbed his arm and tossed him behind her. She did this to a great many other things as well, leaving an interesting path of destruction. He watched after the screaming girl, but suddenly his vision was blocked by a pair of long legs and accompanying panties. Unfortunately, Ryu couldn't enjoy the sight, because the words that accompanied it were, to be frank, shocking.

"Takino! When I catch you, I'm going to take several adorable, fuzzy, tiny woodland creatures and jam them up all of your major orifices and a few new ones that I'll create specifically for the occasion!"

Kagura leapt over his body as well, and Ryu decided to simply lie there and enjoy the sight.

"Sakaki! Yomi's snapped! You've got to help me stop her before she... before she... I don't know what she'll do, but it'll probably be very bad!"

"Okay." Sakaki answered, and the two girls ran off with each other. Down the hallway, a confused Chiyo chased after the older girls, although she didn't stand much of a chance of catching them.

"Are you okay?" asked a new voice.

Ryu glanced over. It was Chihiro. _Someday that girl is going to make an excellent spy. Nobody ever notices her._ "Yeah, I'm fine."

Ryu got up, brushed himself off, and looked down the end of the hallway which the girls had come from. He noted some of his friends looking very confused, but figured that he'd probably gotten the best end of the deal. _After all, I did get a few panty shots._

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Ryu loved Kimura's class. It was the final class of the day, so after it finished he could go home. Kimura was a teacher of incredible honesty and personal integrity, so Ryu admired him. Furthermore, Classic Literature was just the sort of thing Ryu could really get into.

Today, however, was different. The class seemed to drag on, and for the first time in a while Ryu had simply wanted the class to be over with.

When it finally was, Ryu got up and attempted to make his way through the general bustle of homeward bound children. Sakaki, however, managed to simply squeeze through much faster. Ryu, trapped with Kagura and the general bunch of students not lucky enough to make it through the door before the crowd, simply stuck together, shoved about by the whims of the masses.

Eventually, he managed to make it out of Kimura's classrom.

"She said yes!" cried Genji.

"Hmm? What?"

"Ryu, Tomo said yes to me! Haha!"

"Congratulations."

_Ah! Then I'm behind! Damnit!_

He glanced around, looking for Sakaki, and could barely make out her raven hair bobbing around amongst the crowd down the hallway. He stepped out to try to catch her, but a dainty, soft hand caught his in a gentle, but firm grip. Shocked, he turned around to see who it was.

"Chihiro?"

"I... I heard you reciting _She Walks In Beauty_ earlier today. I... I was so... so... could you please follow me?" She looked at him, doe-eyed, and Ryu felt his knees weaken. He couldn't resist.

_It's not Sakaki, not the girl I pulled out of the hat, but... after all, she did at least know the name of the poem._

Chihiro led him down the hallway, towards the other end of the school. Ryu grinned and followed her. She looked back at him, and smiled. She ran ahead of him, and he jogged after her.

_That smile... there's something about it... It seemed somehow... sad. Ah, that Chihiro! She's so... adorable! How have I not noticed her before?_

She turned a corner, and he jogged after her, turning the corner as well.

As he rounded the corner, someone punched him in the gut. Dazed, confused, and with the breath knocked out of him, Ryu staggered back. He glanced around, looking for Chihiro, checking to see if she'd been attacked as well. He looked around, trying to find the attacker, when a roundhouse kick connected with his face. He fell to the ground, bleeding slightly, and was kicked in the gut. Ryu decided to simply lay there, pretending to be unconscious.

"Quickly now, let's just... put him in the dumpster." said an unfamiliar voice.

"Kaorin... don't you think this is going a bit far?" asked Chihiro.

"People go to terrific extremes for love, Chihiro. I've got to do this. I'm sorry, but you wouldn't understand."

"Don't worry, Kaorin... I understand."

"Thanks, Chihiro."

Ryu heard the Dumpster open, and then he came to rest amongst the bags of trash.

_Ow... ah... well... I don't think anything's broken... no horrific injuries just yet..._

The same deep, mournful bell from before rang out from somewhere beneath him, and Ryu sagged amongst the sacks of trash. He lay there, listening to the bell, and heard it ring once more. Afterwards, it was replaced with very energetic bit of music. Ryu lay there, listening to the music for a while, and then heard something else.

"Bastard." said a familiar voice, muted somewhat by the Dumpster lid.

"Agreed." replied another voice that tugged at the strings of memories.

"Hey," started Ryu, carefully moving his head away from the trash as he opened his mouth, "is that you guys?"

"Waugh!"

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**Author's Notes**

Anti Mary Sues: Gotcha! Ha! Actually, your review put me in something of a good mood, which is a good thing. When writing about something as cheerily cheerful as Azumanga Daioh, you've got to put yourself in a damned good mood or else it doesn't feel right, right? Thanks.

Ryu is indeed reciting poems by the great Lord Byron. Chiyo is right in identifying the first poem as _Epistle to Augusta_, cheeky little prodigy that she is. The only difference here is that Ryu has changed "My Sister! My sweet Sister!" to "Sakaki! Sweet Sakaki!" Of course, a guy that dorky over language wouldn't do something crazy like mess up the number of syllables in a line. Chihiro is also right in identifying Ryu's second poem as Byron's _She Walks In Beauty_.

I'm actually considering doing a chapter for the girls as well, or at least, for some of the girls who seem more obscure throughout the story. Kaorin and Chihiro, for example, show up in the stories but what they're doing throughout the day is largely unknown. Chiyo-chan would also be a good candidate, but I'm not entirely sure as to whether or not I should deviate from my original plan of only doing the five boys.


	4. Chiyo's Day

**Author's Note**: I don't own Azumanga Daioh. I kind of created the boys, but if I say I own Sho/ryu/ken, I'll probably get sued.

Read and review, because I am powered by reviews. I'd draw a diagram, but I don't actually have motor skills of any sort to speak of, so you'll instead have to imagine me as some kind of magical typing sofa. Stick reviews in one end and stories come out the other, hopefully.

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The sky above Japan was a pleasant, placid blue that day. There are very many blue things in the world, but none of these blue things could even think of perhaps wanting to maybe approach being as calm as the sky was that morning. It was the sort of sky that you could simply stare up into and get lost in, an infinitely deep blue that brings peace to mind and spirit.

Chiyo Mihama stared up at the sky, reveling in the simple pleasure that comes from enjoying the gifts of nature.

_I feel as if I could simply stand here and watch the sky for... forever._

The prodigy continued to gaze into the sky, and the sky darkened, grew eyes, and gazed back. Chiyo recoiled in horror.

"Waugh!"

"Sorry... I didn't mean to scare you." answered the shade.

The shade was not an ephermal, otherworldly being of darkness sent to reluctantly cloud the skies and frighten young girls. The shade was simply Chiyo's rather taller-than-average friend Sakaki.

"Ah! Sorry, Sakaki, I didn't mean to react in such a fashion. You just startled me, that's all."

"So, shall we walk to school then?"

"Yes... let's go."

The two girls walked along, and a few wispy white clouds began to play amidst the peaceful sky.

"Did you hear, Sakaki? There's a new photo book coming out today!"

"Really? What of?"

"I don't know. It's supposed to be a surprise, but it's also supposed to be really cute!"

"Ah."

"Would you like to come with me to the store after school today?"

"Yeah, sure."

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Chiyo and Sakaki entered the school as they had done many, many times over the past two years. The taller girl changed her shoes quickly and headed to her seat, long legs resulting in longer strides. Chiyo looked after her somewhat jealously, mourning a stature that was not a of just her age. Chiyo was short, even for a twelve year old.. Before doing anything else, the prodigy scanned the room, looking for her friends.

Osaka and Kagura were sitting around, chatting with each other. Tomo and Yomi were doing likewise a short distance away, albeit anything containing Tomo was likely to be quite a bit more spastic than normal. Sakaki, something of a lone wolf, had taken her post by the window and gazed off into the distance. Chiyo sighed, more to herself than to anyone else.

_Everyone's here already! Was I really staring at the sky for that long?_

Being a prodigy, Chiyo thought a lot. A hell of a lot. Chiyo thought for more hours than there were in the day, and so it's no surprise that she thought to herself as she changed her shoes and got ready for class.

_It's... the same. It's always the same. I guess... I guess that's not bad, really._

Chiyo turned around and noticed that the scene had changed somewhat. Osaka and a boy whose name Chiyo couldn't quite remember were talking to each other. A short distance away, Kagura and the boy who looked like Kurosawa-sensei were pretending to talk, but it was apparent that they were more interested in what Osaka and the other boy were talking about than anything else. A tall, brown haired boy was talking to Yomi, and Tomo was busy being Tomo, which in this case meant eavesdropping on Yomi's conversation. Another boy was talking to Tomo, but it was clear to Chiyo that he wasn't going to have much success at all.

_Now that I think about it, I don't really know the names of any of the boys in this class, do I? Well, there's that guy with the glasses, Masa... er... Ooy... hmm..._

This was a particularly depressing train of thought for a person who was used to simply knowing most things, so Chiyo went back to focusing on her friends. Sakaki was still staring out the window, but another boy was busy trying to talk to her.

_Hey, what's with all these boys anyway?_

Chiyo walked over towards Sakaki and the boy, and her shorter stature let her see what the taller boy could not: A cloud that looked rather a lot like a pair of kittens mashed together in a way that could be considered adorable by those with innocent minds. What a not-so-innocent-mind would make of the cloud is best left unsaid.

_The poor boy doesn't have a chance._

"Sakaki! My sweet Sakaki! If a name" he started.

_Wha? What's this?_

"Dearer and purer were, it should be thine  
Mountains and seas divide us, but I claim"

_Mountains and seas? Wait... is this..?_

"No tears, but tenderness to answer mine:  
Go where I will, to me thou art the same--"

_A loved regret which I would not resign.  
There yet are two things in my destiny  
A world to roam through, and a home with thee,_

"Is that... _Epistle to Augusta?_" asked the little genius.

"Yeah, it is."

"Why were you reciting Lord Byron's poetry?"

"Ah, er... you see... it's like this... ahm..."

"**STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING! CLASS STARTS NOW!**" shouted Yukari, quashing Chiyo's little investigation. Chiyo looked over at Sakaki, who hadn't even noticed the two talking.

_Poor boy._

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Yukari's class went by in an entirely normal fashion for Yukari's class, which is in most respects entirely abnormal. Still, humans are remarkably good at falling into patterns of habit, and Chiyo was no exception. She sat quietly in class, watching as Yukari taught. _Normal_. She went off on a tangent that was almost entirely unrelated to the subject at hand. _Average._ Tomo stood up and commented on the quick change in subject, not having paid attention to the original lecture at all. _Standard_. Yukari caught her on that. _Expected._

Then a boy stood up to defend Tomo.

_Just as usua-... wait, what?  
_

Chiyo could've sworn that the chalk projectile burst into a cloud of dust as it collided with the boy's forehead.

_Ow._

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P.E. was remarkably relaxed that day. Miss Kurosawa had simply told the children to enjoy themselves in a way that wouldn't burn them out, as the sun was being mercilessly hot today. For most high school students, this meant sitting down in the shade, perhaps with a drink or two, and simply talking with their friends. The students of Kiyohiko High were, of course, no exception.

Chiyo, always thinking, decided to voice one of her thoughts. "Have you guys ever thought that our lives could be... utterly average? Normal... maybe even boring?"

Yomi, the friend best able to actually talk to Chiyo on the same level, replied with, "Average? What do you mean, Chiyo?

"I mean... we've been at this for nearly two years, right? What's changed about us? Is anything ever really going to change? What if we just stay the same the whole way through?"

"I... I don't think I'm quite following you." Kagura inserted.

"Day in, day out, we're the same. Some people have a problem with change, yes, but... it's necessary, isn't it? For progress, I mean. I find myself worrying, sometimes, that nothing about my life really changes. That some years down the line I'll look back and realize that there were only one hundred and thirty, or maybe even only twenty six truly interesting things that happened to me. I worry that three years will pass by in the blink of an eye, and I'll only really have a few truly noteworthy things to look back on."

"You don't have to worry about that." reassured Yomi. "Life's not static. We're not static, even though it may seem that way. Look over there. Osaka and her boyfriend are talking to Tomo. Yesterday, we didn't even know his name."

"I still don't know his name." replied Chiyo.

_I kind of wish it wasn't Osaka, though. Osaka's the one who really plays with me. She may not always be entirely there, but... She's the only one who I can simply be a kid with. It's Osaka who made it easier for me to get over not seeing Michiru and Yuka every day._

Chiyo frowned, feeling guilty.

_Why should it upset me that Osaka's found a new friend?_

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The thought managed to upset Chiyo for the rest of P.E., and her bad mood had carried over into her lunch break. She'd walked by Osaka and her new friend (whose name Chiyo still didn't know), smiled pleasantly at them, and kept walking. Chiyo passed by a lot of people, in fact, but she didn't really pay any attention to them.

A mournful bell rang out as Chiyo walked on.

_That's depressingly fitting for my mood, isn't it? I shouldn't be mad that Osaka's found a new friend. I shouldn't. And... and this is what I wanted, isn't it? I wanted something to change._

_Did I really want change?_

_Well, they say that the younger generations are more accepting of change simply because they aren't rigidly stuck in the ways of the past. It would be normal of me to want change._

_No, that's not right._

_Change shouldn't bother me, but this change most definitely does bother me. If this change bothers me, then I don't fit in with the younger generation. Am I normal, then?_

_Am I old before my years? _

_Wait, I'm getting off the subject. Why am I upset because Osaka's got a new friend? Furthermore, why do I get upset because I'm upset? Does that create an infinite loop, then? Am I doomed to be angst-ridden forev-_

Another bell tone cut her thoughts short, and Chiyo realized that she had walked down a good distance of the main hallway without really going anywhere.

_Oh my, lost in thought again. I'm becoming an old biddy, a-_

"Aiee! Yomi's snapped!" Tomo screeched, dodging deftly around the carrot-haired genius and moving quite a bit faster than Chiyo had ever seen her go.

Yomi raced past Chiyo as well, not sparing her a second glance. "I'm going to have you hung, drawn, and quartered, Tomo Takino! Then I'm going to take the pieces and light them on fire, and then I will douse your ashes. I will take the water filled with your ashen remains and freeze it, and then I will hit it with a hammer! After that, I will take all the little pieces and _jump on them_!"

Chiyo barely had time to absorb the entirety of Yomi's statement when Kagura and Sakaki ran after past her as well, gaining ground on Yomi, but not fast enough.

Chiyo chased after them, but it seemed a futile effort. She fell further and further behind, although she could keep Kagura and Sakaki in sight. Suddenly, they turned a corner and vanished.

Chiyo followed them, noting that they'd taken the stairs to the roof.

_Tomo, you fool! This is a dead end!_

Chiyo trudged up the stairs, tired little legs refusing to give out, and opened the door to the roof, only to see... Kagura and Sakaki. Kagura clamped her hand over the prodigy's eyes and picked her up, taking her back down the stairs.

"Er, Chiyo," started Sakaki.

"This is something that you shouldn't see at your age." finished Kagura.

Chiyo struggled valiantly against the older girl, but she quickly realized the futility of her efforts. She sagged, defeated.

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Kimura's class passed with little incident. None of the girls acted up in the class lest they arouse Kimura's attention (amongst other things) and all the boys in the class seemed to have a sort of hero-worship thing for Kimura.

_Maybe that's just his way of keeping everyone in line._

The class bell rang, and the students filed out. The girls in particular seemed to be in a rush to get away.

Chiyo caught up to Sakaki, and grinned at her. "Do you mind if we wait for the others? They might want to come along too."

Yomi walked up to the pair, smiling. She didn't say anything. It was just that. Routine. Kagura ran up shortly afterwards, turning them into a quartet. Tomo caught up to the girls shortly afterwards. Osaka drifted into the group again, and Chiyo grinned.

_Well... old biddy or not, I really do like things the way they are._

Tomo looked up at Osaka, grinned, and then dashed off.

_What was that all about?_

Several seconds later, Tomo returned. She smiled at her friends, then glanced over her shoulder and flashed a grin at someone who Chiyo didn't turn around to see.

_Just because they have other friends doesn't mean that they can't be friends with me too._

Chiyo walked off with her friends, basking in their presence. It filled Chiyo with an immense peace of mind and soul, and...

_I feel as though I could simply be like this... forever._

The blue sky tried its best to distract the prodigy, but she'd found something far more calming.

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**Author's Notes**: Yeah, it's a Chiyo-chan chapter. I felt... kind of bad about leaving her out of all of the action, what with her being pedobear bait. I felt really bad, really, and then I realized something. Chiyo's the spectator! She's not distracted by boys chasing her down and reciting Byron poems at her or any of the other ridiculous stuff that the boys may or may not have planned, so instead she can present a viewpoint that's somewhat detatched from the entire thing. I'm debating doing this for the other girls as well, as I'm worried that their chapters will be far too similar to the chapter of the boy wooing them, especially, say, Osaka, who spends most of her day with Sho. If I do make chapters for the girls, I may wind up simply picking and choosing (for example, Kagura talked to Marion a lot, so I might not go with her, but Sakaki barely paid attention to Ryu's poems, so she would be a good choice) or just simply combine the two girl's days into a single chapter in order to get the desired amount of material, as I'm loathe to do small chapters.

Yes, it changed a little bit. No major changes, though, just a few typo fixes. 

And the final comment! While Chiyo isn't my favorite Azu girl by any stretch, she's kind of fun to write about. I see her as still being childish enough to do something, well, childish, but being intelligent enough to realize that it's a bad move and perhaps even feel a bit down about it. She's got these two conflicting natures, and... uh... yeah, whenever that happens, you can usually find something to poke fun at or draw out into a story.


	5. Ken's Day

**Author's Notes**: New chapter! Waoooh! I don't own Azumanga Daioh, naturally. I don't own Lord Byron, John Donne, the Backstreet Boys, Daft Punk, the Macarena, Star Wars, an Osaka Plushie, a sold gold tooth, or any number of things that would be really, really cool to own. It's a damn shame, isn't it?

Oh, damn. Now I'm depressed. You know what you should do, to get me out of this mood? Review! Reviews cheer up the author and cause me to write more! Science proves it, and then science went on to prove that Red is Green and got killed at the next street crossing. Damn. Review anyway.

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Tokyo's roads have seen a lot of people come and go over their many, many years of existence. As they became accustomed to their duties, some of the roads realized that they were able to feel how important the trip was for the people traveling on them. Some of the more spiteful roads, fed up with their work, would try to make the passage harder for the people traveling along them, clogging themselves up with traffic or otherwise making the trip more difficult for the people from which they sensed tremendous urgency.

It is entirely possible that this phenomenon occurs amongst all roads in the world and not merely Tokyo's, but this is now straying dangerously far from the original intent of that bit back there about the roads.

This road was a somewhat spiteful road, and it groggily attended to its duties this morning. The groggy feeling evaporated instantaneously, however, when it felt the tremendous pulse of urgency and determination from one group of people on this otherwise unremarkable Tokyo morning. Faced with such strength of heart and conviction, the road could not move itself to interfere with these people.

"So, Ken, who'd you get?" asked one of the sources of this indescribable determination.

"Mizuhara." replied the sandy-haired boy, grinning. "Koyomi Mizuhara."

"Er... which one's that?" asked Ryu.

"The tall one. Brown hair. Glasses."

"Ah! Mizuhara, eh?"

"They call her Yomi. All of them. Even Yukari. I don't know why Genji put her last name down, but he did."

Genji was quick to defend himself. "Equality! Kagura, Sakaki, Kasuga, Mizuhara, Takino, Mihama... well, not Mihama, but the point is that it's equal if I put down all their last names! If I put down 'Yomi' then I'd also have to put down 'Osaka' and any other nicknames they have! What if you pulled out your slip of paper and it read 'Wildcat,' eh? What would you do? You'd be like, confused and stuff!"

"Ahem. Right. So I got Yomi. She's not exactly Sakaki, yeah, but still..."

Genji grinned in a way that made even his fellows uncomfortable. "Yomi is erotic. You know, she's kind of got that sexy librarian look to her. Or a sultry secretary. Or..."

"Erm... that's enough. What if someone heard you? What if someone she knew heard you? Sure, that's a hell of a coincidence, but you'd ruin my chances for the rest of the day."

"Oh, fine, fine."

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Ken and his friends walked into the school without any further incident. As far as he could tell, nobody had been eavesdropping on Genji's little tirade about Yomi. Or Sakaki. Or... well, Genji was kind of like that at times.

_Not that I'm entirely free from that kind of stuff either. I mean, I did say some of that stuff about Kagura, but... Well, what boy wouldn't? It's perfectly normal for me, I guess. Genji just crosses that line sometimes._

Ken glanced around the room, looking for Yomi. Sho, Ryu, and Marion walked on towards their respective girls, and Ken saw his bespectacled lady sitting with one of her friends.

Genji slapped him on the shoulder, grinning. "Those two there are ours, man! Let's go! Eye of the tiger! Heart of the cards! Use the force! Believe it!"

Genji led the way, and Ken followed him. Despite his shortcomings, Genji simply had this convincing air to him at times.

_Alright, so I'm going over to talk to Yomi. Talk about what, exactly? I don't have any... really... interesting traits. I'm not particularly stupid, but I'm not a prodigy. I don't have a tragic past or an interesting back story. I can't just be... I don't know, I just can't go all-in like Genji does. I'm normal. Perfectly normal. Painfully normal. Average! Hell, even Marion's got a more interesting back story than I do... _

A nudge from Genji dragged Marion out of his reverie.

"What do you want, Genji?"

"Talk to them!"

"You talk to them!"

"Quit being so stubborn and just talk."

"... fine." Ken shrugged.

_Oh well. Might as well start now._

Ken stepped forward and smiled wanly to Yomi and Tomo. "Hello, Koyomi. I'm Ken."

"Oh, hello Ken, how are you?"

"Ah, fine, just fine. Interesting weather we're having, isn't it?"

_My god, could I be any more boring?_

Genji then stepped forward, grinning and staring at Tomo. "Hey Tomo, I'm Genji."

"Yeah, yeah." replied the spiky-haired girl. She said nothing more, but continued to stare at Ken.

"I suppose it is a bit warm for spring. I wonder why?" said Yomi, ignoring Tomo successfully.

"Oh... I wouldn't know. I'm no weatherman." replied Ken, who wasn't entirely successful at ignoring Tomo. Tomo, on the other hand, was in an entirely different league, ignoring Genji in a way that would make such implacable things as rocks and fussy children jealous.

Yomi stared at Ken. "I'm entirely shocked by that statement, don't you know?"

"What?"

"No, I mean, it's just totally different from what I normally run into."

"How do you mean?"

_What's she getting at?_

"I mean, the people who I normally talk to. Tomo here, for example, would claim that the weather is unusually warm as a direct result of how "hot" she is."

"I could see that." said Genji, grinning. Tomo didn't reply at all, and just continued to stare at Ken.

_Something about that stare... it's not malicious, not angry... I don't... understand it. She's just... watching me._

"Whereas another one of my friends would ask if it was a result of, say, a firefly turning on in the northwestern United States. You know, because of that whole 'A butterfly flaps its wings in the Sahara and creates a hurricane in Florida' saying."

_A normal person trapped in a circle of strange friends! She's... I'm... we're the same!_

"Oh. Heh, you've got interesting friends, Koyomi."

"Yeah, I suppose I do. Just call me Yomi, by the way. Koyomi sounds too... well, I'm unused to it."

"Yomi. Hey, yeah, that's a bit better. You and I, Yomi, we should talk more often, don't you think? It'd be nice to have conversations that aren't defined by how ridiculous our friends feel that day." said Ken, casting a shifty glance at Genji.

Yomi grinned at Ken, but before she could say anything else, a loud slam ripped through the room, cutting all conversation down where it stood. "**STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING! CLASS STARTS NOW!**" shouted Yukari, and that was the end of that.

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Ken sighed and watched Yukari's class pass on by. Yukari was by no means a bad teacher. Her idiosyncracies served to make the class entertaining, but they didn't really take away from the students' attempts to learn English. Tomo Takino's outbursts, however, probably did. Ken watched Yomi as Tomo stood up and interfered in her own unique fashion. Yomi watched Tomo, and then Genji as he stood up to interfere on Tomo's behalf. Ken could've sworn that the chalk projectiles pulverized themselves upon impact.

P.E. was relaxed that day, as the heat had prompted Miss Kurosawa to give the students a sort of day off. She was rather soft-hearted at times. Ken shuddered to think what it would be like if Yukari and Kurosawa switched jobs for a day. He didn't think about that for long, of course, as he had much more important things to think about.

Ken turned to his friends, and asked them, "Alright guys, I've managed to talk to Yomi, yeah? That's a start, isn't it?"

"A real conversation, eh? That's more than I've gotten so far." replied Ryu.

"So then, where do I go from here? What are you guys trying? I mean, sure, I've talked to her, but there's gotta be some trick to jumping from friendship to relationship, right? So then... what do I do?"

"You've come to the right place!" replied Genji, none too quietly. "You see, you've got to stand out somehow, yeah? Gotta leap right out past all those other people and prove to them that you're somehow superior, man! Be... dazzling!"

"As for being dazzling," continued Ryu, "I've got a bit of advice for you there. You see, language is the main medium of communication, right? Everyone does it, but if you somehow do it with just that much more style than the average joe, it'll be really standoutish, yeah? Kind of like, hey, everyone can run, kind of, but can everyone run as fast as Sakaki-san? It's way more impressive when you do something that everyone does in a way that everyone... doesn't."

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Ken wandered down the school's main hallway, looking for Kimura's classroom. He and his friends usually hung out in there during lunch, as Kimura's class was the final one for the day. Furthermore, it was quieter than most other classrooms, as the other students tended to avoid it for some reason.

Yomi, however, usually did eat her lunch in that classroom. Ken wasn't sure why she didn't leave like most of the other girls, but he supposed that no matter what it was that the other students were afraid of in Kimura's classroom, Yomi was enough of a realist to realize that there wasn't really anything to be afraid of in the class.

Ken reached Kimura's class and glanced in, noting that Yomi was sitting there with her lunch, alone. Ken couldn't have asked for a more perfect opportunity. He thumbed through his recent memory, thinking about what Ryu had said and what he'd suggested that Ken say to Yomi.

_Sweet girl! though only once we met,  
That meeting I shall ne'er forget;  
And though we ne'er may meet again,  
Remembrance will thy form retain  
I would not say "I love," but still,  
My senses struggle with my will:  
In vain to drive thee from my breast  
My thoughts are more and more represt;  
In vain I check the rising sight  
Another to the last replies:  
Perhaps, this is not love, but yet,  
Our meeting I can ne'er forget._

He walked into the room, looking at Yomi. "Yomi! Hello there!"

"Oh, hi Ken. What is it?"

"Erm... ah..." muttered Ken, struggling with the words. "Swe-" he started, but he was cut off by a haunting, mournful bell, ringing out sadly.

"What was that?" asked Yomi. "It's... not anywhere near the time when church bells should be ringing, let alone four or so times."

Ken paused for a second, trying to collect his words. "Sweet gi-" he started, but was once more cut off, this time by a loud slam. Tomo Takino was standing in the doorway, grinning madly.

Yomi stared at her blankly. Ken stared at her, but couldn't maintain the same indifferent attitude that Yomi had honed through years upon years of experience. Tomo ignored the blank stares with the same skill she'd displayed earlier that morning.

Then Tomo started to sing.

"Last night, I had a dream about you,  
In this dream, I'm dancing right beside you,  
And it looked like everyone was having fun,  
This kind of feeling, I've waited so long."

Ken stared, dumbfounded. Yomi started to look somewhat nervous.

"Don't stop, come a little closer,  
As we jam, the rhythm gets stronger,  
There's nothing wrong with just a little little fun,  
We were dancing all night long."

_Wait... Tomo was staring at me the whole time earlier... she can't be... no way... Genji... the hat!_

Tomo simply grinned and walked towards Ken and Yomi.

"The time is right, to put my arms around you," she sang, and reached out, embracing...

Yomi.

"You're feeling right, you wrap your arms around me too," Tomo sang, pulling Yomi's arms around her as well. Yomi had long since lost all semblance of the cool demeanor she'd used to react to Tomo earlier, and now seemed nearly as confused as Ken did.

Well, not nearly that confused, but it was close.

"But suddenly, I feel the shining sun,  
Before I knew it, this dream was all gone..." sang Tomo, disengaging herself from Yomi.

"Oooh, but... but I know what to do!" she said, grinning. Tomo then leapt onto her friend and kissed her deeply.

The church bell rang its mournful tone again, but nobody in the room paid it any heed. Ken wasn't sure whether to be dissappointed or elated at the recent turn in events, and instead he elected to stare blankly.

Tomo then leapt off of Yomi and ran down the hallway, as though she already knew what was going to happen next. "Yomi's snapped again!" she shouted.

"Y... you... you! Ahhhhgh! I am going to tear you apart, Tomo Takino! I will rip you apart methodically, starting with your fingernails, and eventually I will work my way up to your major organs, and I will do it in a very slow, very painful manner! I will..." she continued on like this for some time, but Ken didn't hear any more of it. He simply stood in Kimura's class and stared at the spot once occupied by a pair of kissing high school girls.

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Ken had collapsed into his seat in Kimura's class, but didn't take his eyes off of the spot once occupied by Yomi and Tomo... combined... somehow.

_Today is... a good day._

He didn't pay any attention to the class, but Kimura didn't really notice. At some point, however, Ken had decided that he should at least try once more with Yomi, as hopeless as it seemed.

After class, he saw Yomi and her friends walking home, but as he started to catch up with them, the Takino girl glanced over her shoulder and flashed him a grin. Ken sighed and went to the dumpster where he and his friends usually met up after school. He waited a short while, but Marion eventually arrived.

"Hey. How'd it go?" he asked.

"Eh. You?"

"Nnh."

"Oh."

"You hear anything about Genji or Ryu?"

"No, I haven't. I still can't believe that it came together like that for Sho."

"Speak of the devil... is that Sho?" Marion said, pointing towards their friend.

"Yeah, I think so... but that's not the way home. He's going in an entirely different direction."

"You don't think that he's headed somewhere with that Osaka girl, do you?"

"Bastard."

"Agreed."

"Nnngh... Hey... is that you guys?" asked the dumpster.

"Waugh!" shouted Ken and Marion, horrified. They pried open the dumpster lid, and saw Ryu lying in there.

_Maybe it's best that I didn't follow through with his advice._

"Dude... you're bleeding." said Marion.

"Yes, yes I am. Mind helping me out of here?"

The two friends dragged Ryu out of the dumpster, and Marion said what came naturally to him. "How... how did you get in there?"

"To be frank... I'd really rather not say." replied Ryu.

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**Author's Notes**: Ryu is such a dork for Lord Byron. The poem Ken thinks about saying to Yomi is Lord Byron's To a Beautiful Quaker. This may or may not be because that's the only poetry book I had handy on me while writing these, but hey, what works works, right?

As for Tomo, Tomo sings _Digital Love_ by Daft Punk, although she changes it a mite near the end. Oooah! Lord Byron's shown up in three chapters so far, will Daft Punk show up in a future chapter? Who knows?

Anti Mary-Sues/Suzumiya ISM: Ooo-er! Well, Genji's the pervy one here, not Ryu. Ryu's the literary dork. Genji's the impromptu leader of a group of high school boys who worship Kimura. Add that into the fact that my research told me that high school boys are powered by hormones and you get a guy who's gotta be a little bit pervy. In addition, I believe that the point of Azumanga Daioh is simply everyday life, and that the series is driven by character interaction over everything else, so hey, here's hoping I can do this character interaction thing correctly.

Kenji, I'd like to get some specfics on what you mean by "vaguely sexist undertones" as it sounds really icky and I'd like to avoid that in future chapters.

And now the fun part of the Author's notes is completed, and I've got to tell you some rather meh news. I'm going off to a place powered by sin for a few days, so I'm not going to be able to update until, oh, I don't know, maybe the weekend sometime. Sorry about that, but that's how it goes some days. In the meantime, I'd like you guys to plop down so many reviews that I can go without food for several days, simply powered by the joy of "having a big zarkin' review number." Oh, and I'm currently debating with myself on whether or not to do a chapter for each girl, or to do two girls per chapter, or something like that. Feel free to make suggestions when you review, as hey, I'm writing these things for you guys, after all.


	6. Kagura and Sakaki's Day

**Author's Note**: I don't own Azumanga Daioh. This chapter is both Sakaki's day and Kagura's day, all mishmashed into one for various reasons that will be explained later.

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The concrete sidewalk grinned in as much as concrete sidewalks can grin, which turns out to be not very much. It was, however, a very proud sidewalk. Day in, day out, for as long as it could remember (which, for sidewalks, turns out to be surprisingly long) it had endured countless people kicking it, and it had resisted valiantly. To date, none of the people had drawn even more than a passing mite of attention from the sidewalk

Granted, one could make the argument that the people were merely taking advantage of action-reaction forces and moving along the sidewalk instead of trying to defeat it, but it's nice to let things dream every once in a while, even if they are made of concrete.

Today,however, there was a rhythmic kicking along the sidewalk that made it take notice. No, it couldn't have injured the concrete being, but it was definitely more focused than normal.

Kagura jogged to school on an entirely different path than she normally took. Why she did this, she wasn't sure, but she figured that if she ran it by Chiyo she could get an explanation.

_Then again, that wouldn't be interesting at all. She'll probably just say something... worldly. I should ask Tomo... No, Tomo would exaggerate it too much. Sakaki and Yomi are just like Chiyo in that regard. Osaka, however, Osaka could actually make something of this. Sure, it might not make sense to anyone but her, but it'll be different, at least._

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Different. Today was a day rife with potential for change, or at least, that's what Sakaki's horoscope had told her this morning. She wasn't ridiculous enough to put all her faith into superstitions, of course, but her family had their values deeply ingrained in a great many things that were important to her ancestors, and some of it rubbed off.

_Still can't believe that I suggested the boiled ends of persimmons for hiccups._

She stepped along a much less haughty, more indifferent sidewalk, and saw something quite uncommon: Chiyo, with her mind not entirely there. The prodigy was simply leaning back and staring into the sky.

Sakaki checked her watch, and then glanced over at Chiyo.

_Oh, we've got some time until school starts, anyway._

So there it was. For some time, Sakaki watched Chiyo, and Chiyo watched the sky. It was all very cute from an entirely detached viewpoint. A not-quite-so-detached viewpoint, however, would notice that the first bell was looming ever closer.

_Best to just get her going. Chiyo doesn't handle mishaps very well, it seems._

Sakaki walked over to the prodigy and regretfully removed her from her reverie.

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"So yeah, Osaka, why do you think I decided to take a different path today?"

"Maybe you wanted to show that cocky sidewalk whatfor?"

Kagura stared at her friend blankly. Before she could figure out exactly how to respond, a boy stepped in and filled the gap in their conversation.

"Excuse me, but do you mind if I speak with Miss Kasuga for a bit?"

Kagura stared blankly at him, trying to figure out who he meant. Osaka did the same.

"Ka...su..ga? Oh! Ah, you mean Osaka! Yeah, go ahead!" said Kagura, grinning and hoping the boy didn't notice that she'd forgotten the real name of one of her closest friends.

"Oh! You mean me, don'tcha?" said Osaka. "Sure, sure." she replied, grinning, and went off with the boy.

_I don't even know his name, but... Ah, oh well. I wonder what they're talking about._

She stared after her friend, pondering her and the new boy somewhat, and didn't even notice the other boy until he spoke up."So, Kagura..."

"Ah? Yes, what do you want?" she replied.

"Eheh, it seems that our friends over there are trying to elope, or something."

_Elope? What's that word mean again? Ah well, probably not that important right now._

"Yeah... weird."

"You wanna go do some entirely friendly eavesdropping?"

"Mm..." Kagura hesitated. _I wanna know what's up with Osaka, but hell, I don't want to intrude on her privacy or anything. _Eventually, her curiosity overcame her conscience "Okay. Osaka probably wouldn't notice anyway."

The two stood up and crept closer to Osaka and Sho, trying to look inconspicuous.

"So anyway, we should spark up a conversation here, just so that those two don't notice us sneaking up on them."

"Yeah, yeah," replied the tanned girl. "You're... ah, who are you, again?"

_Well, that didn't sound rude at all. _

He started to say something, but all Kagura heard was Osaka's boy saying, "So, would you like to be my girlfriend?"

"Hmm... Yeah, alrigh', why not?" answered Osaka.

Kagura gaped, shocked. She stared at Osaka for a good long while, confused.

_So... casually?_ Kagura tried to think a few other thoughts, but the matter with Osaka occupied her mind completely. _No, that's not right, if she wants to it's her choice, right? So I shouldn't be mad, or even thinking about it too hard._

"I'm Marion." said the other boy, and Kagura decided to focus on him.

"Ah. Wait, isn't that a girl's name? Or at the very least, it's not very Japanese."

_Ahh! Why'd I say that? It's so rude! I... ah... I gotta apologize, or something. How do you even apologize for that kind of thing? Do you just say, 'hey, I'm sorry that your parents seem to have hated you or something'?_

"...I'm actually afraid to have my friends over now"

_Crap! I haven't been listening to him at all!_ "What does that have to do with your name?" asked Kagura, hoping he'd repeat the last bit again.

"I'm getting there. Anyway, they really did like those old cowboy movies. You know, the Wild Wild West. The American dream. Rough and tumble cowboys, right? Well, when my mom was pregnant, they decided to name me after a cowboy. The best of the best, apparently. Someone really huge, really important. John Wayne, manliest of men."

"John Wayne isn't exactly Marion, you know."

"Working on it. Anyway, the problem is that they decided to take it even farther. They found out that John Wayne was simply a stage name, and they decided that their son needed to be true to the American spirit, so they did a little bit of research. They found John's real name: Marion."

Kagura glanced around nervously. _If Tomo heard that, this poor guy would never hear the end of it. _Her spastic friend seemed to be utterly entranced with the boy talking to Yomi, however, and while Kagura noted that, she decided to ignore it for the most part. She then remembered she was talking to Marion. "Wow. That's really... I'm sorry about asking... I didn't mean to open up any thing like that."

"Oh, don't worry too much... Just call me Minoru, please."

"Okay... Minoru." Kagura grinned at him. _Don't be mad at me, please!_

"**STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING! CLASS STARTS NOW!**"shouted Yukari.

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Sakaki stared out the window, contemplating life, the universe, and everything. She spent quite a bit of that time contemplating a specific portion of "everything," namely the cloud that looked a lot like a pair of kittens cavorting. Sakaki, having seen her share of perverted things, thought it looked a bit like something else, but decided instead to focus on the image of two kittens playing together. Dirty things were, well, dirty.

Sakaki hardly noticed when a boy walked up to her, but she definitely heard him. She may have been busy staring into the sky at an adorable assortment of puffy white clouds, but her ears weren't doing anything at the moment. Bored as they were, they dutifully picked up the boy's first words.

"Sakaki! My dear Sakaki, you're a mystery, wrapped in an enigma, shrouded in uncertainty, and I, with man's customary love for the unknown, would like nothing more than to unravel the mystery, to explore the unexplored! Please, would you grant me this honor?" said the boy.

Sakaki didn't move, but she went through his statement in her mind for a bit, trying to figure out what the boy meant.

_"Unravel?" "Explore the unexplored?" Well, if I'm wrapped in enigma, and he wants to reveal the unknown, then that means... he wants to see me... Ahh! And if he wishes to explore the unexplored, then that means... Waugh! Double entendres everywhere! Should I slap him? No... I'll just... pretend I didn't hear him._

Sakaki's mild appreciation for "adult" stories had perhaps driven her to see something ero-ero in everything, although whether that has lead her to protect her chastity more zealously or to simply be paranoid about the most innocent of things is still debatable.

The boy was undeterred, and continued to recite.

"Sakaki! Sweet Sakaki! if a name

Dearer and purer were, it should be thine.

Mountains and seas divide us, but I claim

No tears, but tenderness to answer mine:

Go where I will, to me thou art the same--"

_I don't even know how to start analyzing that one... Poetry? All of those old poets used to write dirty little jokes in their rhymes anyway, so it's bes to just play it safe._

Perhaps it would have been better if Sakaki had experience with a poet who wasn't John Donne, but right now, it couldn't be helped.

"Is that _Epistle to Augusta?" _asked a familiar voice.

_Chiyo! Run! It's a trap!_

"Yes! Yes it is!" said the boy.

"It's quite lovely." responded the prodigy.

"Yeah... it is."

"Why were you reciting Lord Byron's poetry?"

_Good job Chiyo! I'd like to know as well._

"**STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING! CLASS STARTS NOW!**" shouted Yukari.

_Then again, it's not exactly important._

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P.E. was either wonderful or atrocious this day, depending on your point of view. In Kagura's mind, the latter idea reigned triumphant. A relaxed day like this was, well, a wasted day.

Chiyo had started up a conversation, but Kagura wasn't entirely sure as to why the little prodigy was so worried about living an average life.

_If you simply enjoy the life you've lived, then who cares if it's average or not? We've only got one shot, right? Make the most of it, and live without regret!_

Sakaki's thoughts differed from Chiyo's, though she didn't voice them. _Average is not necessarily bad, Chiyo. Sticking out above and beyond the norm isn't always fun. Sometimes it's better to just not be noticed._

The lunch bell rang, and the students packed in from P.E., the girls keeping a wary eye out for a roving Kimura.

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P.E. had ended without any interesting events, but Kagura figured that if school wasn't going to hand her something interesting today, she would make something interesting happen. She grabbed her lunch box and headed back to Yukari's room.

Sakaki sat in Yukari's room, calmly eating her lunch, when Kagura traipsed on into the room. She flipped a desk around and gave Sakaki a wry grin, and then slammed her lunch box onto the desk.

"Today's challenge may be recycled, but that doesn't make it any less of a challenge!" she declared. "Today, we shall test our mettle against one another, and see who can finish their lunch the fastest! This test covers several areas: Firstly, raw speed! Can you move faster than the opponent? Secondly: Dexterity! Speed is nothing if you can't grab your food efficiently with the chopsticks! Third: Endurance! Eating under such extreme conditions is demanding business!"

Kagura grinned, and then glanced over to her opponent's lunch, which was by this time mostly done. "Ah! I've fallen behind already!" she shouted, and dug into her lunch in a far more literal way than anyone should ever hope to see.

Sakaki contemplated telling Kagura that she'd packed a smaller lunch than normal that day, but decided against it.

Amazingly enough, the two girls finished their food at roughly the same time. "I guess we'll just have to call it a draw." said Kagura.

"Yeah, I suppose." Sakaki put her lunchbox away and then wandered off. Kagura, seeing nothing else to do in Yukari's classroom, decided to leave as well, although not in the same direction.

Kagura noticed a boy doing... something she couldn't quite figure out, but it seemed to have entranced both Osaka and her... boyfriend.

"Kagura!" shouted a somewhat familiar voice.

"Ah! Marion! What do you want?" _Wait... not... Marion... _"Ack! Sorry! Minoru, Minoru! I'm sorry!"

He grinned at her, and started to say something, but he was cut off by a screeching Tomo, dashing down the hallway. Hot on her heels was a visibly enraged Yomi, shouting "Tomo Takino! You had best run! If I catch you, I'm going to break every single bone in your body! Afterwards, I'm going to get a medical degree, mend all of your bones and then BREAK THEM ALL AGAIN!"

_Yomi's snapped. Tomo probably deserves it, but Yomi is really, really pissed. Better not take any chances._

"Erm, sorry, but I'd better go try to help Tomo," said Kagura, racing after her friends.

The wildcat was the slowest of the bunch by a significant amount, but she made following her quite difficult by reaching out and toppling anything that she could to chuck in the path of Yomi, including but not limited to fellow students. Kagura leaped over the obstacles, musing to herself that perhaps today wasn't totally wasted just yet.

She leaped over another boy and noticed Sakaki standing there. "Sakaki! Yomi's snapped! You've got to help me stop her before she... before she... I don't know what she'll do, but it'll probably be very bad!"

"Okay." Sakaki answered, and the two girls ran off with each other. Down the hallway, a confused Chiyo chased after the older girls, although she didn't stand much of a chance of catching them.

Tomo turned a corner, up towards the rooftop.

_Tomo, you fool! This is a dead end! _thought Kagura.

_Tomo, you fool! This is a dead end! _agreed Sakaki.

The two athletic girls raced up the stairs, hoping to catch the wildcat and her friend before too much damage was done to either. They reached up and opened the door, ready to spring into action.

What they saw, however, prevented that.

"I... I don't think I believe it." said a shocked Kagura.

"That's... that's... really... wow." agreed Sakaki.

"So what do we do? Should we try to stop them?"

"Do you want to get in the middle of _that_?"

"Yeah, you're right."

"Besides, it hasn't gotten too ugly just yet. It'll be fine, right?"

"I don't know, Sakaki. I don't know. I do know, however, that it fills me with various emotions that are strange and confusing."

"Agreed. There are way too many things going through my mind right now, and I don't know exactly how to word them. I don't even know if there are words for them."

"Yeah, really makes you feel kind of inferior, doesn't it? Being at a loss for words and everything. Perhaps we should ask someone who knows these sorts of things... like..."

"like..."

"CHIYO!" exclaimed the two in unison.

"Chiyo was following us!" shouted Kagura. "She can't see this! It'll break her innocent little mind!"

As if on cue, the rooftop door behind the two started to creak open. Kagura, moving like lightning, clapped her hand over Chiyo's eyes and lifted her with the other hand. Sakaki covered her ears, and the two, confident that they'd blocked off any dangerous sensory input, dragged the child downstairs.

"Er, Chiyo..." started Kagura.

"This is something you shouldn't see at your age." Sakaki said.

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Kimura's class was rather dull, without much to really take note of. Sakaki simply waited for the class to end so she could get away from the boy from this morning, who was watching her much more closely than was comfortable.

Kagura, for the most part, spent most of her class time watching a rather haggard-looking Tomo. _Geeze. That rough, eh?_

The bell rang, and everyone started to filter out of the classroom slowly. Sakaki made it out quickly, not avoiding the crowd so much as leading it. Kagura wasn't quite so quick, and got caught up in the crowd.

"Hoy, Genji!" shouted Tomo, as the class's order dissolved, the standard result of the end-of-day bell. "I've thought about it, and I totally accept and stuff, yeah? You and I, boyfriend, girlfriend, that sort of thing."

Kagura gaped. _First Osaka, then Tomo? Ah, so I'll be the only loveless Bonkura! So then... is something wrong with me? Maybe it's not that they're strange for accepting so readily, but perhaps I'm strange for not being very... open? Is it unladylike to be unreceptive? _Lost in her thoughts, she eventually made her way into the main hallway without consciously thinking about it.

Once out there, however, she was intercepted by Marion.

"Kagura, I have to ask you this! Please listen to me!"

"Ah! What is it, Mari- er, Minoru?

"I was just wondering... if you would like to be... er... that is... if you would want to be my... well, not mine... to be... a couple?"

"Ahm. Minoru..."

_What should I do? What should I say, rather? Tomo and Osaka said yes... But it doesn't feel right... _

"Yes?"

_No way can I say yes, doubly so if my reason is simply 'Well, Osaka and Tomo have boyfriends now.' I'm not that shallow, or... well, yeah. Besides, it wouldn't be fair to Marion._

"It's a sweet gesture, really... but how much do you actually know about me?"

"Ah... I know that you're... um... athletic... And fairly kind... and... ah..."

"Exactly. You can't forge relationships in a day, you know."

"Tell that to Osaka and Sho."

_Who's Sho? It's Tomo, you silly boy._

"Yeah, Osaka and Tomo are... exceptions."

"I see... Thanks anyway."

"Don't take it hard or anything, you're a nice guy, I guess. It just doesn't work that way. At least we're friends now, right? I mean, before, I just knew you as that guy who looked kind of like Miss Kurosawa."

_WAITAMINUTE! Why did I say that?_

"Yeah, thanks."

"Gah! Is that a touchy subject too? I'm sorry! Sorry! Sorry!"

"Ah, don't worry about it."

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Kagura caught up to her group of friends, noting that everyone was present except for Osaka and Tomo.

_Oh, hell. _

She feared for the worst. Any multitude of possible future fates for her group of friends started to drift through her mind. None of the fates seemed terribly wonderful, and most ended in, well, the end for their friendship. Kagura fought back tears.

Sakaki noticed this, and wasn't sure exactly why Kagura was starting to cry. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"Just... just thinking too much." said the athlete, not looking the taller girl in the eye.

"Thinking too much? Kagura? That's impossible, I say! Absolutely impossible! So totally out of the question that you'd go all the way around the universe and wind back up in the question!"

_That voice_... thought Kagura. _That voice could only be..._

Tomo's perpetual grin filled her vision, and took effect, the general effect being a sort of nervousness that comes from reading the grin as "I'm about to do something that you probably won't like, but I think it'll be funny."

Kagura glanced up at the grin that simultaneously reassured her that everything would be alright and made her want to hit it. She couldn't help but smile back at Tomo.

_Still, Osaka's missing. It's not complete yet._

Eerily, Osaka seemed to read Kagura's mind and showed up at that particular moment. "Yeah, so I was talkin' to the sidewalks one day, right Kagura? And I started thinkin' about that day. You know what they told me? There was this one sidewalk, real jerk-like. The worms didn't like him much either. Anyway, he's pretty damned cocky, wears a perpetual grin, and usually brags about how nothing can hurt him. Even when a fellow piece o' pavement tries to point out to him that nobody's really even trying to hurt him, and that everyone's just usin' the laws of physics to get goin', he ignores them and is generally a cocky bastard overall."

"Kind of like Tomo." said Yomi.

"Hey! I take offense to that!" shouted the campus berserker.

"Yes, but nobody cares." said Yomi.

"Anyway, I did a little thinkin', and I've figured it out! You were receiving subconscious psychic messages from the other sidewalks and roads and even most of Tokyo's rather miffed worms, and so instead you jogged to school on Mr. McBastard Sidewalk instead of your normal path! It doesn't hurt him, or anything, but your focus and rhythm would give him a neat shock without anybody having to resort to a jackhammer!"

"Subconscious... psychic... messages?" replied a confused Kagura.

"Subconscious psychic messages."

"Messages?"

"Messages."

"Right."

"Miss Osaka, I think it might've just been a whim." said Chiyo, trying to staunch the flow of general strangeness.

"No, it was definitely psychic worms. Everything in the universe has a reason, Chiyo! We're all interwined an' stuff, so even if it seems like just a whim, there was totally a reason for it! There's gotta be, y'know? It's all cause and effect, even when you can't see all the causes! I imagine there's a gal up there, writin' the story of our lives, and if we could just ask her she'd tell us all why we're doin' what we're doin!"

_Oh, I don't care if it feels like someone just bashed my brain with a slice of lemon wrapped around a large gold brick... She's back! Tomo's back, and Osaka's back, and... we're all the same! Huzzah!_

_ -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

**Author's Note**: Welcome to later. Anyway, I'm mushing the girl's days together like this because of several reasons.

Firstly, I don't plan to do any girl before their guy has shown up. Chiyo, not having a guy, is the obvious exception. As a result, the story of each girl has already been partially explored by the guy who tried to woo them beforehand, depending on their successes and failures. As a result, there is slightly less to write about for the girls than there is for the guys, making full-fledged chapters kind of hard.

Secondly, each pairing of girls works together in an important fashion for their chapter. For example, it would be weird to have Sakaki and Kagura's conversation during lunchtime without both of them being the focus of the story, and it would wind up being just another conversation that's repeated in two chapters. I didn't really want to do that any more than was utterly necessary.

Thirdly, I wanted to do a boy/girl/boy/girl alternation for these things because it's neat and I'm petty like that. As a result, I wound up squishing a lot of things. Oh, and the reason Sakaki plays kind of, well, second string to Kagura in this chapter is that Ryu didn't really have too much success with her, so most of her time's been spent with her friends being quiet and Sakakiesque.

In addition, I had a lot of random ideas bubbling around in my head, and since I usually alternate updates for this and my other fic, I wanted to get down all that good Sakaki and Kagura stuff before it was forgotten, as I'm kind of... well, not airheaded, but my mind holds information like a balloon with a hole in it. There are also some really random ideas that I kind of want to start up as stories, except I don't want to lose focus on the two I already have. I hate it when they don't fit in with the existing storylines, you know? I mean, like, yeah, it'd be fun to have something really crazy like, I don't know, Kimura's past or something, but I don't wanna get lost in a new story when I'm still lost in my current ones, yeah?

The author's note is now getting dangerously long, so I'm going to end it here.


	7. Genji's Day

**Author's Notes**: Sorry about the delay between updates, I've been mildly distracted. Anyway, I don't own Azumanga Daioh, although it'd be really cool if I did.

Today, we've got Genji, the impromptu leader of the group! How will he fare? Well, Tomo did say yes during Kagura and Sakaki's chapter, so... let's see how he got her to do that!

Read, enjoy, and review, folks. Try to do it in that order. It'd be pretty weird if you did it in any other order.

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The flame roared into existence, dancing in the sheer glee of simply _being_. Fire reveled in its sudden freedom, reaching up towards the sky in order to best show off its glory, to best reveal to the world how amazing it was. It raced up, prideful, and smacked right into a metal plate.

No matter, the fire itself may have been blunted, but the heat that formed its heart was still racing up through the iron and proclaiming its glory. The burning heart would never not be stopped. No one could ever deny its glory!

Genji flipped the switch and watched as the flame on his stove winked out of existence. He ate breakfast quickly and dashed off to join his friends. Today, today he too had an undeniable destiny to fulfill.

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"So, who'd you get?"

Genji glanced around at his friends, then pulled out his piece of paper.

"Takino."

"Ha! She's in Chiyo's group, if you know what I mean." said Sho.

"Yeah, you _would_ be interested in girls in Chiyo's group, wouldn't you, Sho?" teased Marion.

"Hey, this conversation's not about me, it's about..."

"Tomo Takino. The..." said Marion, suddenly remembering Genji.

"Notorious campus berserker dumbass." continued Ryu.

"Hey, she can't be that bad." said Genji. "I mean, her nickname is wildcat, right? Maybe she's a wildcat everywhere, if you get my drift."

Ken decided to stop this train of thought before it got too far. "I doubt that her friends would give her a nickname based on her performance in bed. I mean, sure, it'd be fun to think of them as lesbians, but what are the odds? Besides, I think you might be getting a little bit ahead of yourself, Genji."

"Yeah, I suppose I am."

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The five boys trickled into Yukari's classroom, which was busying itself with not starting in sheer defiance of the approaching bell. Genji wasted no time in spotting his mark.

Tomo was sitting with Yomi, chatting about something or the other.

_Yomi, eh? Ken got Yomi, so... I'll get Ken._

Ken was looking at the pair as well, probably thinking about how to approach them. Genji slapped him on the shoulder, grinning. "Those two there are ours, man! Let's go! Eye of the tiger! Heart of the cards! Use the force! Believe it!"

"What do you want, Genji?"

"Talk to them!"

"You talk to them!"

"Quit being so stubborn and just talk."

"... fine." Ken shrugged.

Ken stepped forward and smiled wanly to Yomi and Tomo. "Hello, Koyomi. I'm Ken."

"Oh, hello Ken, how are you?"

"Ah, fine, just fine. Interesting weather we're having, isn't it?"

_Wonderful! If Ken can simply be so wonderfully boring, then I can look like a master linguist by comparison! It'll look like I'm a paragon of eloquence, and Tomo'll immediately be impressed with me!_

Genji then stepped forward, grinning and staring at Tomo. "Hey Tomo, I'm Genji."

"Yeah, yeah." replied the spiky-haired girl. She said nothing more, but continued to stare at Ken.

_Is that it? That's... that's all I get? No reaction? Hm... maybe I should try asking her about herself._

"So anyway, Tomo, what kind of music do you like?"

No response.

"Nice hair, by the way."

No response.

"Y'think Ken and Yomi are hitting it off?"

No response.

In his frustration, Genji lost focus and actually heard a little bit of Ken and Yomi's conversation. "I mean, the people who I normally talk to. Tomo here, for example, would claim that the weather is unusually warm as a direct result of how "hot" she is." said Yomi, exasperated.

_Hey, there's an opportunity if I ever saw one!_

"I could see that." said Genji, grinning.

No response.

Genji sighed, wondering what exactly it was that Tomo found so fascinating about Yomi and Ken's rather dull conversation, but eventually abandoned that train of thought.

_Ah, damnit.I should've asked Ryu for a poem or something. Perhaps he could've come up with someth-_

"**STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING! CLASS STARTS NOW!**" shouted Yukari, quashing all conversation in the room. Genji felt no loss.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yukari's class went by fairly regularly. Genji spent a lot of time musing about exactly how to get Tomo's attention.

_Oh, hell. She's not exactly the most attentive girl, yeah? So I can't really just rush at her and expect her to pay any attention to me. I've got to do something outstanding to get her attention. I've gotta be amazing, but... what exactly can I do? I c-_

"Objection!' shouted Tomo. "Yukari, I've got to say that I find that previous statement utterly and completely objectionable! Absolutely despicable, you know?"

"Oh, how so?" asked the teacher.

"It's so despicable that it tears at the roots of my very being, Yukari! I mean, it almost causes me physical pain."

"I can only hope."

"I mean, Yukari, you can't be seriously serious about that! It's a crime against mankind, it is!"

"And this whole time you've simply voiced your dislike of it, Tomo. What, exactly, do you find objectionable?"

"I... uh... erm..."

"Nothing, eh?" said Yukari. The teacher turned towards the chalkboard and reached for a piece of chalk that was too small to write with, a grin sneaking its way almost imperceptibly onto her face.

_This is my chance!_ thought Genji.

"Hold it!" shouted Genji. "Tomo's point is quite the solid one, and she should not be punished simply because she cannot find the words for them!"

"It is?" asked Tomo.

"If it is," said Yukari, still not turning around, "then would you please tell me why the phrase 'Excuse me, sir, but I would like to pick up our baggage tomorrow," is objectionable?"

_Shit!_

The projectiles sailed through the air imperceptibly fast. The chalk missiles pulverized themselves against the foreheads of their intended targets, and without missing a beat Yukari returned to her lesson.

As Genji fell back to his seat, his head rang from the force of the impact.

_That's it!_

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P.E. was mellow that day, but Genji couldn't talk to Tomo. As a matter of fact, the only boy who'd actually managed to talk to his girl during P.E. was Sho. Instead, Genji and his friends discussed strategies for the latter half of the day.

"Yeah, so I haven't really had much luck so far." he said.

"Not much luck? Genji, this morning, Tomo didn't even give you a second glance," said Ken. "You aren't simply doing bad, you're failing magnificently."

"Hey, hey, I've got a plan, you know. It struck me in the middle of Yukari's class."

"Several things struck you during Yukari's class."

"Shut up. Anyway, you see, Ken, the only way to get with a girl is to get her to notice you."

"Oh, you're already on shaky ground, then."

"Shut up. I'm gonna do something dazzling! You've gotta be breathtaking, yeah? You've gotta be stellar! You've gotta be... you get the point, yeah?"

"Yeah, yeah, I got the point. You've gotta be something or the other, that's what they all say. It's a shame I'm so damned normal, eh?"

"Yeah, yeah, well, you gotta deal with what you're dealt! You've got to find the girl's weak spot and hit it to ensure success. You know, kind of like a crab, eh? Then, when you get the weak spot, you can reach the sweet, succulent me-"

"Your analogy was flawed to begin with, but now I'm definitely going to have to stop it."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Genji grinned. So far, today hadn't been going well. In fact, that's a hell of an understatement. So far, today had been going horribly. Tomo turned out to be far more difficult than he'd anticipated, and so he'd done... well, badly. Really badly. But now, now, things were about to change.

He grabbed the boom-box from his locker, checked the disc, and grinned. He checked the disc and stifled a laugh, then went off.

He may have been thwarted so far, but it would take more than that to stop him. He tapped Tomo on the shoulder and grinned at her.

"Hey, Tomo, I've got something to show you." he said, simply. He then walked down the hallway, deciding that less is more in certain cases and that the air of mystery would add a good bit of allure towards this next bit.

He glanced over his shoulder a few times, to make sure Tomo was following him. She was.

He stopped at a spot chosen entirely arbitrarily and placed the boom-box on the floor. He glanced over to Tomo, grinned, and tapped his foot on the boom-box once, then slid the volume up to the maximum level.

A church bell rang out a dreary note, and Genji closed his eyes.

Then the song started. _Aerodynamic _played in all of its energetic glory, and Genji danced. He danced and danced, not bothering to open his eyes and watch for people, or for walls, or for... anything. Today he was going to form his destiny, today he would declare his existence in defiance of the world! Today, he would dance, today he would define this hallway, and anyone nearby would have to get out of the way, because Genji wasn't going to abide anyone's will but his own. Today he would shine brilliantly in his independence, and Tomo Takino would have no choice but to notice!

The first part of the song finished, and the church bell rang out again. Genji paused, listening to the crowd.

"Is it over?" asked an unfamiliar voice.

"No, 'fraid not." replied Sho.

_Bastard._

_Aerodynamic_ started up again, and Genji danced. He refused to be afraid. Walls did not exist anymore, there was no need to worry about running into them. He simply knew that there could be no obstacles to his pursuit today, and so he danced. He moved as though he knew that he could never find obstruction. Genji lost himself in the music.

Eventually, the music stopped. Genji fell to his knees and listened.

One pair of hands was clapping somewhere in the darkness. Genji turned to it, opened his eyes, and looked towards the source of applause, smiling.

"Brayh-voe! Brayh-voe!" said Osaka, grinning.

"Erm, Osaka, I think it's pronounced Bravo." said Sho.

"Oh."

"O...saka? But... where's... Tomo?" asked Genji, slightly out of breath and very much disappointed.

"Oh, she went off somewhere, I'm not entirely sure where." said Osaka. "Probably playing with Yomi or somethin'. Those two always have so much fun together."

Genji sagged, defeated, and wandered outside. He found the school dumpster and tossed his boom-box into it.

_Why didn't that work? It... it should have worked! Maybe... maybe I'm going about it the wrong way. I'll just... I'll just ask her directly!_

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kimura's class was somehow... boring to Genji today. Well, boring was probably the wrong word. Today, he simply couldn't focus on Kimura's class. Perhaps it was the head trauma from Yukari's chalk missiles, but today Kimura's class passed by without Genji giving it a second thought.

As the bell approached, however, the class dissolved and the students started to chatter amongst themselves. Kimura usually ended his lessons early, presumably to afford himself a few minutes to ogle the girls as they tried their hardest to not remember where they were.

Genji leapt on this opportunity, and went up to Tomo.

"Tomo, would you like to be my girlfriend?" he asked, simply.

Tomo ignored him.

_Ah, damn. Defeated._

Genji sighed, but a few seconds later, Tomo replied. "Hoy! Genji! I've thought about it, and I totally accept and stuff, yeah? You and I, boyfriend, girlfriend, that sort of thing."

Genji grinned. "Really?"

"Really!"

The bell rang, and everyone started to drift off, heading for home.

He caught Ryu on his way out of the classroom and stopped him momentarily.

"She said yes!" cried Genji.

"Hmm? What?"

"Ryu, Tomo said yes to me! Haha!"

"Congratulations."

Genji reveled in his victory for a bit. He considered running out to the dumpster, finding his boom-box, and dancing again, but decided against it. He watched Chihiro and Ryu run past him, and he grinned. Things were good, after all.

He glanced down the hallway and saw Ken. Genji was just about ready to run towards him and declare his good cheer in the most obnoxious way he could think of, but Tomo ran past Ken and went up to Genji.

"Hoy, Genji!"

"Yes, Tomo?"

"We're done! I'm bored of you, so... seeya." With that, she ran back to join her friends. As she reached them, she cast a glance over her shoulder, looking past Ken and at Genji, grinning.

Genji slumped to the floor and didn't even notice the girl who walked up to him. She tapped him on the shoulder and grinned at him as he glanced up, looking at the pretty face framed by braids.

"You... you told me this was a good idea!" he shouted at her. "You said that good times were to be had if I could just convince my friends to try to go out with those girls! Happiness to be derived from it, and... and everything. You said that this was something that god _wanted_ to happen! So why... why'd it all go wrong?"

"What do you mean, why did it all go wrong?' asked the girl with the braids. "You're acting like I'm god, or something. I can be wrong too, you know? Besides, who's to say what's wrong or right? It's all... perception, yeah?"

Genji stood up and glanced out the window, noticing Sho walking in a direction that wasn't the way home for him.

A_t least one of us had some success. Go show her what for, Sho._

With that though, he slumped back to the floor and sat there, looking around for the girl with the braids. She'd vanished as suddenly as she'd appeared. Genji decided to simply vegetate on the floor for a while.

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**Author's Notes**: Yeah! Only a few more chapters to go until this one's over, but hey, it's been fun so far. This chapter's actually the hardest to write for me, as it has to fit into all the previous chapters but still be original, somewhat. The problem, of course, was that Genji was somewhat accounted for in previous chapters already, whereas everyone else still had somewhat clean slates to work with. You'd think that by this logic, Sho's chapter would be the hardest by far, but he spends an awful lot of time with Osaka instead of with his friends, so his chapter should be cake by comparison.

Next up! Tomo/Yomi's chapter. After that Sho's chapter, and then maybe an Osaka chapter if I can think of enough things to distinguish it from the Sho chapter.

In somewhat related news, I acquired the Yotsubato image album. Is it... weird to want to hug _music_? Because that's what I get from listening to it. Somehow, I wanna reach out and hug the sound, you know? How is this related? Well, it's cheerfully adorable, and so it should help me get into the right mood for writing! Kyah!

Be sure to click that little thing in the bottom left corner that says "Write a Review" and then do that. I like hearin' your thoughts, you know, because after all this time writing things, it's nice to read what people think about them. Comments of any kind can always be used to make improvements in future chapters. Even if you think you're just making a frivolous comment, trust my creativity to turn it into a help on the next chapter!

For example, "Hey, Lire, I rather liked so-and-so bit of this chapter, even though it really can't come back in future chapters." Well, then I could try to remember what I was thinking when I wrote so-and-so bit, and bring you something that's inspired in a similar fashion but totally new! You'll like it, so plop a few reviews my way.


	8. Tomo and Yomi's Day

**Author's Note**: It's another two-character chapter! Tomo and Yomi, our good ol' polar opposite pair. What have they been up to?

I know, but it'd be better for you to find out by just reading what comes after these damnedable author's notes. You know what would be even better? If you wrote a review after reading. Speeeectacular, really.

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Koyomi Mizuhara glanced up at the morning sky, relaxing in the calming effect of the pale blue dawn. She relaxed in the light of the early day, enjoying the simple peace that the pastel color of the sky inspired. She sighed satisfiedly to herself, and sat down to eat her breakfast. This was her morning ritual, and she considered it of utmost importance.

_Ah, these moments are too sparse. I've got to appreciate them as much as possible. If I didn't center myself like this each morning, I don't think I would be able to deal with..._

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Tomo Takino stared up at the morning sky and grinned. The pastel blue expanse tried its hardest, but it didn't really have much of a chance at calming her soul. Tomo gazed up at the morning sky, but didn't see it for the calming blue. Her eyes settled on the morning moon, pale white somehow standing out against the sky's pale blue.

To some people, the morning moon was not something to take notice of. The moon's nighttime reign is coming to an end at this time, and it would soon fade into the post-dawn sky.

To Tomo, however, the moon was something important. The moon sat out, defiant, refusing to go away quietly with the night. That pale white disk burned with an energy that other people simply didn't see.

Tomo grinned at the man in the moon, her friend in the sky, and glanced down at her cell phone.

_7:18 A.M. That means that Yomi's just finishing with breakfast, which means..._

Tomo laughed to herself and glanced down the walkway to Yomi's front door. She stared down the walkway, stifled her laughter, and casually avoided the lines of sight that lead to the house's larger windows and, behind them, the kitchen.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yomi finished up her breakfast neatly, taking everything to the sink and cleaning it all off. She then dried off the plate and put it in the rack, leaving the kitchen almost entirely the same as it was before she'd taken breakfast.

Adjusting her glasses more out of habit than out of actual necessity, she looked around the kitchen. Satisfied with its orderliness, she went back to her room to pick up her bag before heading off to school.

As she twisted the knob and pushed open the door, a voice called out to her from inside the room. "What's cookin', good lookin'?"

"Tomo... you really need to come up with better greetings, you know?" replied Yomi, remaining completely unshaken by suddenly discovering her closest friend sitting in a bed she'd left only minutes ago.

"What's up, buttercup? That's not too shabby, eh, flabby?"

Yomi fought the urge to turn her friend into a bloody splatter on her carpet, reasoning that it'd be exremely difficult to clean up.

"No."

"Ah well, whatever. If I need to come up with better greetings, then you need to come up with better security, yeah? I mean, your window was just unlocked! Imagine if some crazy person came in here? You'd be screwed... maybe even in a more literal way tha-"

"Let's stop that right there. First of all, a crazy person did get in here. I am screwed, but not literally. At least, I don't think so. Secondly, I did lock my window. I always lock my window. I don't know how you got in, but..."

"I've got to get these skills down if I'm gonna become an Interpol agent one day, yeah?"

"Or a thief."

"Nah, I'm definitely a good guy!"

"I have my doubts. Anyway, we're going to be late if we just hang around here. Let's get going."

"Naw, we won't be late. Just slightly behind schedule, yeah?"

"That's also defined as late, Tomo."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The two girls made it to Yukari's class around ten minutes before the class period officially begin, but official times meant almost nothing in this classroom. Whoever seemed to enforce temporal matters seemed to simply look the other way in this region of spacetime, although it is currently unsure as to whether they're being bribed or simply disgusted by the blatant disregard or order and normalcy.

The two girls sat down at their desks, adjacent to each other. Yomi glanced around, taking note of which of her friends had already arrived. Kagura and, interestingly enough, Osaka, seemed to have arrived earlier than they had and were busy having a conversation about something or the other. Sakaki and Chiyo were still absent, which was odd for the young prodigy.

"That's odd," commented Yomi.

"What is?" asked Tomo.

"Chiyo's and Sakaki aren't here yet."

"So? There's still oh, I don't know, but a buncha minutes until Yukari shows up."

"Yeah, but they're not the types to gamble on that."

"They're just a little bit late."

"It's not normal for them is all I'm sayi-"

"Hello, Koyomi. I'm Ken." said a brown-haired boy, smiling wanly at them.

_Huh? _thought Yomi. _Who's this guy? Oh, might as well just talk to him. It's kind of nice, I guess, actually having someone ask to talk to you instead of the other way around._

"Oh, hello Ken, how are you?"

"Ah, fine, just fine. Interesting weather we're having, isn't it?"

---------------------------------------------------------------------_---------------------------------------------_

_Hey, who's this guy talking to Yomi? Ken, eh? I wonder what he's up to. Then again, "Ah, fine, just fine. Interesting weather we're having, isn't it," eh? How boring! It's just so... mundane._

"Hey Tomo, I'm Genji." said another boy, flashing what Tomo was sure he thought was a winning smile.

"Yeah, yeah."

"So anyway, Tomo, what kind of music do you like?" asked Genji.

_Bah! With this guy here, how am I supposed to eavesdrop on those two?_

"Nice hair, by the way."

_Actually, I think it's kind of anno... shut up! Maybe if I ignore him he'll go away._

"Y'think Ken and Yomi are hitting it off?"

_Hitting it off? Yomi and a boy?_

"I could see that."

_You are not reading my mind. Incase you are, shut up. Shut up. Shut up._

"**STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING! CLASS STARTS NOW!**" shouted Yukari, quashing all conversation in the room.

_Oh, hell, what were those two even talking about? I probably missed out on something really juicy right there._

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I suppose it is a bit warm for spring. I wonder why?" asked Yomi.

"Oh... I wouldn't know. I'm no weatherman." replied Ken, looking rather nervous and more than a little bit bothered.

_That's... a very weird reaction to such a normal conversation. I wonder why he's doing that?_

Yomi glanced around to the people in their little group at the time, trying to figure out exactly what could be making Ken so fidgety. The other boy was simply trying to talk to Tomo and failing spectacularly, so Yomi figured that, unless Ken was a particularly emphatic person, it wasn't Genji's fault. Yomi didn't think that she'd done anything terribly upsetting yet, so that only left Tomo.

Tomo was busy focusing a piercing glare on Ken at the moment, looking far more focused than Yomi knew she could be. _Stop that, Tomo. Ah, hell, better get his attention somehow._

Yomi stared at Ken, willing him to ignore Tomo and focus on her. "I'm entirely shocked by that statement, don't you know?"

"What?"

"No, I mean, it's just totally different from what I normally run into."

"How do you mean?"

_How do you mean? That's some weird sentence structure right there... must be more nervous than I thought. Oh well, better keep talking to him. He should relax more._

"I mean, the people who I normally talk to. Tomo here, for example, would claim that the weather is unusually warm as a direct result of how "hot" she is."

"I could see that." said Genji, grinning.

_That line... that's so horribly cheesy. If I weren't so absolutely positive that Tomo didn't give a quarter of a damn about you, I'd clock you right now. Several times, nameless boy. Watch yourself._

"Oh. Heh, you've got interesting friends, Koyomi." said Ken, ignoring Genji.

_That's the way! Now just do it to Tomo too._

"Yeah, I suppose I do. Just call me Yomi, by the way. Koyomi sounds too... well, I'm unused to it."

"Yomi. Hey, yeah, that's a bit better. You and I, Yomi, we should talk more often, don't you think? It'd be nice to have conversations that aren't defined by how ridiculous our friends feel that day." said Ken, casting a shifty glance at Genji.

_Oh, so you've got to deal with that sort of thing too, don't you? Ah, you poor boy._

Yomi grinned at Ken, but before she could say anything else, a loud slam ripped through the room, cutting all conversation down where it stood. "**STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING! CLASS STARTS NOW!**" shouted Yukari, and that was the end of that.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yukari's class progressed as normal from Yomi's viewpoint. While Yukari's methods were somewhat... esoteric, she did get her job done, so to speak. Learning from her simply required a little bit more attention than normal, and at least the classes weren't so mundane.

Yukari's class was normal from Tomo's standpoint as well, which simply meant that today was the day for another confrontation. Today, Takino would win out over Tanizaki, and Tomo was positive.

_My heart is burning with passion! Today is the day where I emerge victorious, blinding my fellow students by letting them bask in my glory! Today, Yukari! Let's rock!_

"Objection!' shouted Tomo. "Yukari, I've got to say that I find that previous statement utterly and completely objectionable! Absolutely despicable, you know?"

"Oh, how so?" asked the teacher.

"It's so despicable that it tears at the roots of my very being, Yukari! I mean, it almost causes me physical pain."

"I can only hope."

"I mean, Yukari, you can't be seriously serious about that! It's a crime against mankind, it is!"

"And this whole time you've simply voiced your dislike of it, Tomo. What, exactly, do you find objectionable?"

"I... uh... erm..."

"Nothing, eh?" said Yukari. The teacher turned towards the chalkboard and reached for a piece of chalk that was too small to write with, a grin sneaking its way almost imperceptibly onto her face.

Then Yukari paused and started to talk, perhaps to someone else. Even then, Tomo didn't hear a thing, because her mind had run wild as a result of Yukari's brief pause.

_Musing to yourself, are you, Yukari? I see, I've got you now! I'm making you reconsider your actions! Any moment now, your expression will change, you'll slowly put down your weapon, and then you'll admit de-_

The chalk missiles sailed through the air in a way that amazed Yomi. As she watched the projectiles fly from Yukari's hand, she noted two things. Firstly, with one smooth motion she'd sent two projectiles heading towards two separate targets. Secondly, she noticed tha the two pieces of chalk weren't tumbling at all. They simply flew perfectly still and perfectly straight towards the foreheads of their targets, impacting on the portion with the smallest surface area and maximizing the force transferred to a single point.

_I wonder what Yukari does in her spare time, _thought Yomi as she watched the twin weapons explode into clouds of white dust._ On second thought, I don't really want to know too much._

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Nyamo's class could barely be considered a class that day. It was, though, for the best, at least as far as Yomi was concerned.

_Sure, I may have lost physical education's excercise, but damn, it's hot today. Too hot for spring. Days like this shouldn't exist._

Yomi satisfied herself by sitting down in the shade with Sakaki, Kagura, and Chiyo. Tomo and Osaka were off somewhere else. Yomi considered this a somewhat welcome reprieve from the somewhat more unpredictable members of their group.

_Not that I dislike them or anything, but it's nice to have a break sometimes. Just... something to relax with, a little time to simply sit and be without having to do anything, or to calm them down, or bring them back._

Unfortunately for Yomi, immersing herself in normalcy didn't turn out to be the relaxing experience which she had hoped for. Chiyo had somehow gotten the thought into her head that life was too mundane, too average. It was a depressing way to look at normalcy, really, and it put a damper on Yomi's mood.

_Oh, Chiyo. You're too smart for your own good sometimes... Children your age are barely supposed to think about what they're about to do, let alone muse about things like "In the end, will my life even seem halfway interesting to anyone else?" Just be a kid for a little while longer, please. It's a lot more fun._

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Tomo, Osaka, and Sho were walking around during P.E. They'd originally been sitting in the shade, but sitting still proved to be too difficult a task for Tomo, who at first resorted to simply standing up and pacing. When she realized that that wasn't enough, the entire group began to wander around P.E. aimlessly.

Nyamo would have been proud of their devotion to excercise, except Minamo Kurosawa generally knew better.

"So Osaka, you know, I was thinking, and I decided on something."

"Oh, that's good, Tomo. Decisions are important, yeah? You've gotta be firm in choosin' things, or else you'll run into trouble somewhere down the line."

"Er... yes Osaka, they are important... Anyway, I've decided that I need... a haircut!"

"A haircut?"

"Yes, yes. I can't really be like Fujiko, yeah? So I should just go and cut it down a tad. Besides, it's kind of getting a bit long. Too cumbersome, you know? Not fitting for a lithe little girl like me."

"Lithe?" asked Sho.

Either ignoring him or simply not hearing him, Osaka spoke back to Tomo. "No, no, that's not right! You can't just decide to cut your hair like that! Imagine, Tomo, how long it takes for those little hairs to muster up the courage to grow that long! How much work they've been doing, yeah? And now, now you're gonna just chop 'em up on a whim! That's not right, Tomo!"

"Not... right?"

"Yeah, it's not right! You can't just up and do things on a whim for no good reason, right Sho?"

"Y-yeah... You're right, Osaka." replied Sho, looking more than a little bit flustered.

"So you're saying I need a reason to cut my hair?"

"I'm sayin' it wouldn't be fair to your hair if you didn't have a good reason."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tomo meandered into the school's main hall, thinking about what Osaka had said.

_I need a reason, eh?_

"Hey, Tomo, I've got something to show you." said Genji, carrying a boom-box.

_I guess it could be mildly interesting. Let's see what'cha got, Genji._

Tomo followed him for a while, and eventually Genji set down his boombox and smiled at her. Osaka and Sho were hanging around as well, somewhat curious as to what Genji was about to do.

He reached over and flipped on the boom-box, and a bell rang. It wasn't the sound of the normal school bell. It was a deep, mournfull ring, like church bells in medieval times. The sound shook people to the core. When the bell stopped ringing, the rest of the song kicked in.

"Hey," started Tomo, looking over to Sho and Osaka. It seemed that they were the only others watching. As a matter of fact, other students seemed to avoid the display like the plague. "What song is this?"

"It's... ah, _Aerodynamic_, by Daft Punk." said Sho.

"And Genji is..."

"Dancing."

"Dancing..."

"Dancing."

"Right..." Tomo watched Genji flail about for a little while more, but decided that she'd really rather not, and wandered off. She glanced inside Kimura's room and saw Yomi sitting there, eating lunch. A sandy-haired boy entered the room from the other entrance and walked towards her.

_It's... it's the boring boy! I can't let Yomi get stuck with him! He's far too uninteresting for her! She'll just... languish! I've got to do something right now, something to save my best friend from the clutches of mediocrity!_

_Aerodynamic_'s bell tones rang out again, and Tomo knew what she wanted to do.

_Daft Punk, eh, Genji?_

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yomi sat in Kimura's room, eating her lunch. There wasn't really much of a reason for anyone to avoid the classroom at lunch, especially because Kimura always ate lunch in the staff room. The classroom was just another classroom during lunchtime, and after all, it wasn't like Kimura ever did anything past leering and making a few lecherous comments.

_Well, more than a few._

"Yomi! Hello there!" said Ken, entering the room.

"Oh, hi Ken. What is it?"

"Erm... ah..." muttered Ken, struggling with the words. "Swe-" he started, but he was cut off by a haunting, mournful bell, ringing out sadly.

"What was that?" asked Yomi. "It's... not anywhere near the time when church bells should be ringing, let alone four or so times."

Ken paused for a second, trying to collect his words. "Sweet gi-" he started, but was once more cut off, this time by a loud slam. Tomo Takino was standing in the doorway, grinning madly.

_Tomo... what are you doing here? Oh, hell, that never gets an explanation. Tomo Takino doesn't need reasons. Still, Ken must be confused._

Yomi stared at her blankly. Ken stared at her, but couldn't maintain the same indifferent attitude that Yomi had honed through years upon years of experience. Tomo ignored the stares with an indifference that would put Yomi to shame.

_What the hell are you going to do, you crazy girl?_

Then Tomo started to sing.

"Last night, I had a dream about you,  
In this dream, I'm dancing right beside you,  
And it looked like everyone was having fun,  
This kind of feeling, I've waited so long."

Ken stared, dumbfounded. Yomi started to look somewhat nervous.

_Tomo, this is... absolutely strange. Even for you. It's scary. This is the time where you activate your best friend empathy, read my mind, and shut up. Please, Tomo._

Yomi tried to ask tell Tomo this, but something in the wildcat's face stopped the words from even beginning to think about perhaps wanting to try to come out of Yomi's throat.

"Don't stop, come a little closer,  
As we jam, the rhythm gets stronger,  
There's nothing wrong with just a little little fun,  
We were dancing all night long." sang Tomo, grinning all the while.

Tomo, Tomo, what are you doing?

Yomi applied her rather impressive mind, trying to figure out exactly what Tomo was getting at. She couldn't. Her friend's actions puzzled her immensely, and Yomi suddenly felt immensely helpless. She couldn't do anything but sit back and watch Tomo's machinations unfold.

Tomo simply grinned and walked towards Ken and Yomi.

"The time is right, to put my arms around you," she sang, and reached out, embracing...

Yomi.

_Wh...what?_

"You're feeling right, you wrap your arms around me too," Tomo sang, pulling Yomi's arms around her as well.

This action had fully evaporated Yomi's usually cool demeanor, leaving her as flustered and confused as Ken was. Luckily for Ken, neither of the two girls was paying him much attention.

There are very few situations in which a boy can be considered "lucky" to be completely ignored by women, but this may have been one of them.

"But suddenly, I feel the shining sun,  
Before I knew it, this dream was all gone..." sang Tomo, disengaging herself from Yomi.

Yomi tried to think of something to say, something to do, even something to think but she simply couldn't. She'd lost all control of herself, and simply sat there and stared at Tomo.

"Oooh, but... but I know what to do!" she said, grinning. Tomo then leapt onto her friend and kissed her deeply.

_Tomo just kissed me._ thought Yomi. _Tomo just kissed me. And I'm... not fighting back? Why am I not fighting back? I'm just... taking it. Am I kissing her back? I am kissing her back. Why am I kissing h... Tomo just kissed me. In the middle of school. Well, it's only Kimura's classroom, and nobody's here but me, Tomo and... Ken. Ken's here! She kissed me infront of someone!_

As if sensing her friend's impending rage, Tomo leapt off of her and made a beeline for the door. "Yomi's snapped again!" she shouted, racing down the hallway.

Yomi was hot on her tail. "Y... you... you! Ahhhhgh! I am going to tear you apart, Tomo Takino! I will rip you apart methodically, starting with your fingernails, and eventually I will work my way up to your major organs, and I will do it in a very slow, very painful manner! I will then laugh maniacally, Tomo Takino! You had best run! If I catch you, I'm going to break every single bone in your body! Afterwards, I'm going to get a medical degree, mend all of your bones and then BREAK THEM ALL AGAIN! It will be a cycle of pain that will never end, and the world will weep openly for you, Takino! When I catch you, I'm going to take several adorable, fuzzy, tiny woodland creatures and jam them up all of your major orifices and a few new ones that I'll create specifically for the occasion! I'm going to have you hung, drawn, and quartered, Tomo Takino! Then I'm going to take the pieces and light them on fire, and then I will douse your ashes. I will take the water filled with your ashen remains and freeze it, and then I will hit it with a hammer! After that, I will take all the little pieces and jump on them! Then I will take the little bits, find a cloning machine, and then ressurect you and kill you in a million more ways, laughing with newfound glee with each and every kill. Three million clones later, my revenge will still not be complete!" Yomi shouted a few more things, but fortunately, most people didn't hear the truly vulgar things she'd shouted.

Tomo glanced back at her friend, who was steadily gaining on her. She looked ahead and saw the staircase to the roof, and decided to take her chances up there, where at least the beating would be somewhat private.

Yomi turned after Tomo, charging up the stairs, and burst out of the doorway to the roof.

"Reveal thyself, that I may shred you in the most efficient fashion, Takino!"

The door creaked shut.

"Are you sure you want to do that, Yomi?" asked Tomo, standing in a spot that had been previously concealed.

"Almost 408 positive, Tomo. Why did you do that?"

"I couldn't stand the thought of letting you get stuck with such a boring fellow, Yomi! I...I wouldn't be doing my duties as a best friend!"

"Bullshit. You don't kiss me just to stop me from getting with a guy. Do you like me in... you know, that way?"

_That's Yomi. Straight and to the point, _thought Tomo. She didn't say anything, and just stared at her friend.

"You do, don't you?"

Tomo grinned at her friend, and then leapt at her. The two rolled around a bit, and eventually, Tomo's lips found Yomi's. The two locked together for a long moment, free of the world, free of the universe, free of everything but each other.

"So, do you like me in that way?" asked Tomo, grinning at her friend.

The rooftop door swung shut, creaking noisily.

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"So you say I need a reason for a haircut, right Osaka?"

"Yeah. You gotta, or else it's just a real jerk move."

"Hmm."

"By the way, Tomo, didya fall into a pit or something? You're looking kinda frazzled."

"Didn't you hear Yomi during lunch?"

"Nope."

"Well, it's all her fault."

Kimura's class passed quickly for Kimura's class, but because it was still Kimura's class, that was far too slowly for any of the girls' tastes. Still, it hit the home stretch, and order in the classroom started to dissolve.

Genji walked up to Tomo. "Tomo, would you like to be my girlfriend?"

_Shit! How do I say no to him? 'Sorry, I appear to be romantically involved with that tall brownhaired person over there. No, not your friend, the one with the boobs. Yeah, her.' Can't do that... maybe if I just stay quiet he'll go away._

Genji sighed and walked away.

_Man, I'm good._

_Hey! That's an opportunity right there!_

"Hoy! Genji! I've thought about it, and I totally accept and stuff, yeah? You and I, boyfriend, girlfriend, that sort of thing."

Genji grinned. "Really?"

"Really!"

The bell rang, and everyone started to drift off, heading for home. Tomo left the classroom, heading on over to all of her friends. She flashed Yomi a grin, and then glanced over her shoulder before saying anything.

Osaka was walking up to the group, but without Sho following her. Tomo grinned at her, and then ran off from the group again.

_I wonder what she's doing,_ thought Yomi. _Oh well, when she gets back, we'd better tell our friends about... that._

Tomo ran up the hallway, past that boring fellow, and saw Genji standing there, smiling wanly at her. She flashed him her winningest smile. "Hoy, Genji!"

"Yes, Tomo?"

"We're done! I'm bored of you, so... seeya."

Before he could react, Tomo had turned around and raced back towards her friends. She caught up with them and glanced over to Yomi.

"What were you doing?" asked Yomi.

"I know." said Osaka.

"Really? Oh. Well, Yomi and I figured that we'd best tell you all," started Tomo.

"Yeah. Erm, Tomo and I are, well,"

"We know." said Sakaki and Kagura.

"You know?" asked Yomi.

"We know." said Sakaki and Kagura.

"You know?" asked Tomo.

"I know." said Osaka.

"What does everyone know?" asked Chiyo.

Osaka smiled at her, and started off. "Well, Chiyo, To-"

"It's probably best that Chiyo doesn't know, Osaka." said Sakaki, cutting her off.

"Really?"

"But I wanna know!" shouted Chiyo in the miffed way that only children her age could pull off.

"You know too much already." said Kagura, grinning at her.

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**Author's Notes: **Yeah. This is another two-character chapter. It's got a bunch more tie-ins to other chapters than the Sakaki/Kagura chapter, although I still sneakily snuck in a lot of original content. Like thoughts and feelings and all of that other wishy-washy hoo-ha. And a few scenes unique to this chapter, but hey, what can ya do? I was actually tempted to skip the Yomi/Tomo chapter entirely and simply leave the rooftop scene a total mystery, but then I realized that that would make a lot of people rather miffed.

There's really not much to say on this chapter, aside from the fact that I typed it on a laptop without any spellchecking feature for some reason. So... if there's anything I missed, I'm taking this time to apologize for the agony that any of my typos caused you.

Who's left? Sho and Osaka, of course! What are those two people who've been so absent from the rest of these chapters been up to? I don't know, give me a day or two to figure it out, yeah?

Oh, yeah. Customary demand for reviews. Reviews make me happy, happy Lire writes more. You want that, or at least, I hope you want that, so let's help each other out, yeah?


	9. Sho and Osaka's Day

**Author's Notes**: Hey, this is potentially the final chapter for Endeavors! Sho and Osaka, both surprisingly absent from the other chapters, have their starring roles here! What are they up to? Who knows? Let's find out.

As always, reviews are appreciated. A lot.

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The wind whipped through the streets of Tokyo, careless and free. This was a kind, benevolent wind, not a frightening, mighty wind. The breeze was gentle, soothing, and it would only make mild suggestions to the world around it, and while the environs would bend and sway in response, very few of them actually were carried off by the breeze.

Sho watched as a gust whipped its way around the trees, which steadfastly ignored it. He watched a single leaf flow away with the wind, and for a moment Sho imagined himself as the leaf, free from the rest of the world.

_No, that's not right,_ thought Sho. _The leaf isn't free, the wind is forcing it to come alo-_

"Hey, Sho, y'there?" asked Ken, pulling Sho back in to the real world.

Sho glanced down at his friend… No, friends. They were all there. The sight of them reminded him of what they were meant to do today.

_That's right, today we're gonna try to get girlfriends._

"Yeah, I'm here. Sorry about that."

"Nevermind, nevermind," said Ken. "Who'd you get?"

"Kasuga."

Silence hung in the air for a moment that felt like a millennium. Sho glanced around at his friends. "Ayumu Kasuga." Still no response. "Osaka."

"Oh," said Genji. "Ohhhh."

"What do you mean, 'Oh.'?"

"Well, what I mean is that she's… very… Osaka. I don't know how to describe it, but she's very… er… She's in Chiyo-chan's group."

"So? That's not necessarily a bad thing," said Sho.

_I don't even really know her. Why am I defending her?_

"No, no, it's not just that," said Ryu. "She's kind of… out there, you know? Very much… airy. It's as though she simply didn't belong in our universe, or our dimension. She's just not all there."

"I don't think that's necessarily bad, Ryu. I mean, she's kind of childlike in that manner, yeah? It gives her the air of innocence. Very cute."

Marion grinned deviously. "I got it!" he shouted. "Childlike appearance, childlike demeanor, Sho's satisfied with this because he's a pedo! Remember that whole stint with Chiyo yesterday?"

"Hey, Marion, shut up. It's not like that!"

"Minoru, damnit!"

"Heh, pedo," muttered Ryu to nobody in particular.

"Oh, for heaven's sake," muttered Sho. "Let's just… So, who'd you get?" he said, to none of his friends in particular.

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The five boys arrived in Yukari's classroom at around the time they usually arrived, which was a few minutes before the bell normally rang. This gave them a fairly large buffer between the time of arrival and the time when Yukari actually arrived. Tardiness has never been a problem for the students in Yukari's homeroom, although that was more or less a direct result of it being a significant problem for Yukari herself. Still, this meant that the boys had some time to talk to their girls before the class actually started.

Sho glanced around the classroom and saw Osaka sitting and chatting with Kagura. The two girls were chatting about something or the other, but they seemed to be fully engaged in the art of conversation.

_Well… damn. I'll just wait for a pause in the conversation and ask to speak to Kasuga. Yeah, that'll be easy enough, conversations die all the time._

Sho stood there for a minute, trying to look inconspicuous, waiting for the conversation to pause so that he could slip a word in edgewise.

_What am I doing, exactly? I'm about to try to start up a relationship with a girl, yeah, that's obvious, but why am I doing it? Because Genji told me to? That's not… right at all. You can't just start a relationship on a whim like that, they don't work that way! They shouldn't work that way!_

_But if I just quit on this right now it'll be like abandoning my friends. They'll be mad at me. Can't do that either. Still, it's not fair to Ayumu if I do it this way, either. There's got to be a way that I can be fair to both her and my friends, it's just… Hmm…_

Sho thought carefully about this problem. He tried to focus on it, but something else nagged at him.

Rather, nothing nagged at him. Silence hung in the air, and Sho realized his opportunity. He stepped forward, turned to Kagura, and asked, "Excuse me, but do you mind if I speak with Miss Kasuga a bit?"

"Ka…su…ga?"

_She forgot her friend's real name?_

"Oh! Ah, you mean Osaka! Sure, go right ahead!" said the tanned girl, grinning.

_I wonder if she'll even manage to remember Marion's name. Forgetting your friend's real name? That's kind of…_

"Oh, you mean me, don'tcha?" said Osaka. "Sure, sure, why not?"

_Kasuga… forgot that she was Kasuga?_

"Oh, wonderful. Ah, let's just go over there," said Sho, motioning towards a pair of desks a shot distance away from Kagura and Marion. "Is that okay with you?"

"Sure, sure," she said. "No problem, chief!"

With that, Osaka started walking towards the aforementioned location. Sho walked after her, but stopped when he was struck by an idea.

_What if I just have her turn me down? She doesn't get stuck with a relationship that shouldn't be, and I don't have to feel like I let down my friends! That'll… that'll work!_

"So, _mon capitane_, are you gonna have a seat or what?" The girl grinned at him as he sat down.

"Ah, sorry about that, Miss Kasuga. I space out a little bit sometimes, you know?"

Osaka's only response was to stare straight at Sho as he took his seat. After a short while, it became apparent that she wasn't really staring at Sho, that she was more staring through Sho. She simply gazed through him, as though she was watching something else entirely.

"Uh… Miss Kasuga?"

"Mmh? Ka…su…ga? Call me Osaka, please. Names are important to get right, you know."

"Er, right. Miss Osaka. Anyway, I just wanted to ask yo-"

"Names are important to get right, you know?"

"Yeah… you said that."

"So what's yours?"

"Sho. I'm Sho, Osaka."

"Oh," she replied. "_Oh._ _Ohhhh._ You **sho'**, Sho?"

"Y…yes."

_Joking in english? She's not a prodigy, is she?_

Sho glanced over and couldn't help but notice Marion and Kagura trying to creep closer into their conversation _Even better. If Marion hears her reject me, then I can simply act distraught about it when they try to taunt me. They won't suspect a thing._

"Miss Osaka! I have to ask you something!" Sho shouted, as soon as he was sure that Marion and Kagura were close enough to hear.

"Is it about Chiyo's pigtails?"

"N..no."

"Oh."

"So, would you like to be my girlfriend?" he asked, staring into her eyes.

"Hmm…"

_Why are you thinking about it? Just say "no," Marion will hear, and then I won't have to do this at all. I've even got witnesses and such!_

"Sure, alrigh', why not?" she replied, grinning all the while.

Sho, shocked, gulped at her like a goldfish. This wasn't supposed to happen. Eventually, Sho realized that gulping at her like a goldfish was rather rude, and so he instead gaped at her like Kimura. He quickly realized that that was probably much worse, and returned to gulping at her like a goldfish.

This continued for some time, with Osaka simply grinning at him and scrutinizing him as though he were some insect.

"**STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING! CLASS STARTS NOW!**" cried Yukari. Sho stared for a few seconds more before taking his seat in front of Osaka.

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Yukari's class was merely background noise. Sho wasn't exactly sure how to deal with the situation with Osaka, and he considered that quite a bit more important than learning a secondary language at the moment.

_Okay, well, she said yes. It'd be a total jerk move to dump her now, so I can't do that, and besides, my friends would be miffed over me not taking it seriously. I can't hope to manipulate her into doing what I want. I tried that already, and it got me stuck in… this situation._

_The only thing I can do is make the best of it._

Sho glanced around the class and noticed Marion staring at him. He sighed and gave Marion a thumbs-up.

_Might as well give the impression that I'm happy with this._

_------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _

"So, Osaka, this guy here's your boyfriend?" asked Tomo.

"Yeah, s'pose he is."

_S'pose?_

"So what's his name?"

"Sho. My name's Sho."

"Oh, heyo, Sho. What's up?"

"Nothing really, just avoiding the heat."

"Yeah, I can see where you're coming from. P.E. is too hot, and it's all because of that hateful orb up there!" shouted Tomo, gesturing madly at the sky.

"Actually, I think it's more all those greenhouse gasses and whatnot. You know, all that hullabaloo they complained about in Kyoto, yeah?"

Tomo stared at Sho, scrutinizing him for a while.

_Is… is she mad at me? What's she doing?_

Tomo then spun around swiftly, surprising Sho. She turned to Osaka."So Osaka, you know, I was thinking, and I decided on something."

"Oh, that's good, Tomo. Decisions are important, yeah? You've gotta be firm in choosin' things, or else you'll run into trouble somewhere down the line."

"Er... yes Osaka, they are important... Anyway, I've decided that I need... a haircut!" said Tomo, wandering away from the couple. Osaka got up and followed her. Sho got up and followed Osaka.

"A haircut?"

"Yes, yes. I can't really be like Fujiko, yeah? So I should just go and cut it down a tad. Besides, it's kind of getting a bit long. Too cumbersome, you know? Not fitting for a lithe little girl like me."

"Lithe?" asked Sho.

Either ignoring him or simply not hearing him, Osaka spoke back to Tomo. "No, no, that's not right! You can't just decide to cut your hair like that! Imagine, Tomo, how long it takes for those little hairs to muster up the courage to grow that long! How much work they've been doing, yeah? And now, now you're gonna just chop 'em up on a whim! That's not right, Tomo!"

"Not... right?"

"Yeah, it's not right! You can't just up and do things on a whim for no good reason, right Sho?"

"Y-yeah... You're right, Osaka." replied Sho, looking more than a little bit flustered.

_Well… you shouldn't. It didn't stop my friends from trying it._

"So you're saying I need a reason to cut my hair?"

"I'm sayin' it wouldn't be fair to your hair if you didn't have a good reason."

_It wouldn't be fair if I didn't have a good reason._

_---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _

Sho, Tomo and Osaka stood together in the hallway, watching Genji move. Sho hesitated to call it dancing. Tomo watched Genji move warily, and Osaka watched Genji with the same seemingly vacant grin that she watched everything with.

"Hey, what song is this?" she asked Sho.

"It's _Aerodynamic_, by Daft Punk," he answered.

"And Genji is…"

"Dancing."

"Dancing…"

"Dancing."

With that said, Tomo wandered off. Sho wasn't entirely positive, but she seemed to be wearing a fairly mischievous grin.

"So, why's he dancin' to _Aerodynamic_?" asked Osaka.

"He did it for a school project some time ago. Some people liked it, and he's been fairly egotistical about it since."

The song stopped, and church bells rang out again. "Is it over?" she asked.

"No, 'fraid not."

Eventually, though, Genji did finish. When the only thing he saw after finishing was Osaka applauding him and Sho standing with her, he frowned and wandered off down the hallway, headed for destinations unknown.

"So, why was he dancin' to _Aerodynamic_?"

"Osaka, I think I already explained that."

"No, I mean, why dance to _Aerodynamic_ at all? I mean, sure, it's a nice song and everything, but I don't think it's nice enough to warrant a spontaneous exhibition in the middle of the school."

_Should I tell her about our plan? _"It's… not."

"So why?"

_I guess I might as well. Better she learns now than finds out some time later._

"Osaka, ah, have you noticed that boys seem to have become a bit more common in your everyday occurrences lately?"

"Boys? No. A boy? Yes. Just you, Sho."

"Oh. Erm, well, anyway, Genji was dancing because he was trying to impress Tomo."

"Well, that wouldn't have worked out."

"Does she not like Daft Punk?"

"No, no, it's the names. Genji? Tomo? They don't mesh, you know? You can't like, combine them together or anything."

_What? Nevermind, I can't let her derail me. I've got to tell her everything._

"Erm, no, no. Anyway, Genji was trying to impress Tomo for a reason."

"Well, she is quite the sexy beast… according to Tomo."

_Focus, Sho! Focus! _"The five of us, Genji, Marion, Ryu, Ken, and myself, we were all trying to woo one of your friends."

"Is that it, then?"

"Er, yes. Through a highly specialized process, Genji was matched up with Tomo, Ken got Yomi, Ryu got Sakaki, Marion got Kagura, and I got… well, I got you. That's… ah… that's the entire basis of our relationship, sad to say. I don't know how the others fared, but in my opinion, we're doing pretty good."

"They all failed," she said simply.

"How do you know? You've been with me the whole time, you know? I mean, we've seen Genji fail in front of Tomo, but how do you know how Ryu, Marion, and Ken fared?"

"Names. They're more important than you think. I had… ah, let's say a divine revelation, a religious epiphany, a miracul-"

"Erm, back to the names, Osaka…"

"Hey, did you ever wonder about the garden of eden?"

"The garden of eden?"

"Yeah. This god fellow, he gives the first two people this wonderful paradise, 'cause he's god and all, yeah? The, for no readily apparent reason, he or she sticks a big fancy tree in the middle of it and says to the first two people, 'Hey, don't eat that, okay?' and, what do ya know, they do. What does he do? He pops out and goes 'Gotcha, bitches' and kicks them out. Doesn't that strike you as… er… spiteful?"

"Well, he did tell them not to do it."

"But if he's got all this power, then why bother with it? If you're saying he did it to test them, then there's really no point in testing them at all, don't you think?"

"How does that make any sense?"

"Well, y'see, if he's gonna test them once, he's gonna keep testin' them until they fail. Since he's all-powerful, they can't win. It's like dealing with the kind of person who puts a brick on the ground and then covers it with a hat so that mischievous people who'd stomp the hat wind up bustin' their feet. Might not work the first few times, but he'll keep tryin', and eventually he'll resort to lighting paper bags on fire and then putting bricks in those."

Sho stared at Osaka, not entirely sure how the conversation had gone this way. He got ready to bring it back on topic, but the bell rang before he could.

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Kimura's class went by painfully slowly for Sho. He wanted to figure out Osaka. This girl and her idiosyncrasies had completely puzzled him for the better part of the day, and he intended to put a stop to that.

_If I'm going to have a relationship with her, if we're going to stay together… it just wouldn't do if I didn't understand her, or if she didn't understand me. _

_Actually, I'm not sure if she even really understands anything. Hell, I'm not even sure if her understanding anything would make a difference in the way she acted at all._

_But I want to understand her. I'll just have to keep talking to her, then. After all, she said yes to me, so she has to have seen something endearing in me. I should at least figure out why we're even together before pursuing it any further._

_Ahh! Why is this girl so damned complicated?_

Sho sighed in frustration, and turned around. Kimura was not, by any means, a disciplinarian, and Sho figured that he could get away with a little bit of chatter in Kimura's class. It hurt him to betray his favorite teacher in that fashion, but Sho figured that Kimura of all people would understand the overwhelming desire for truth that was driving Sho at the moment.

Sho turned to Osaka, ready to begin his inquiry.

Unfortuately for him, she was busy talking to Tomo at the moment.

Sho sighed and resigned himself to trying to pay attention to Kimura's class until the bell rang.

He fell asleep.

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Sho dreamed an odd dream. In his dream, he was sitting safely at home, watching the news. Scientists had, for some reason or another, decided to firmly define something as a planet. Unfortunately for Pluto, it didn't fit the definition and, as a result, was disqualified as a planet. A few days later, the scientists announced that Pluto was hurtling through space towards the Earth at an incredible speed.

Panic was the general reaction. After all, a planetoid hurtling towards the Earth wasn't something that people were generally prepared for. It tore through space at a terrifying speed, and despite a barrage of nuclear and conventional weapons, Pluto could not be stopped.

Sho found himself standing in the streets of modern day Japan, staring at the sky as Pluto gradually occupied a larger and larger portion of it. On the day of the impact, Sho stood on his roof and watched as the celestial body threw itself at the Earth in apparent fury over not being a planet anymore.

As the collision approached, Sho could not help but close his eyes and turn away from the tremendous projectile. He waited for oblivion, but oblivion never came. When he opened his eyes, he saw a tiny orange speck holding off the enormous planetoid. He squinted, and from a distance, it looked like a cross between a somewhat misshapen cat and former Prime Minister Mori. The orange being, perhaps a god, turned away the rather ticked-off planetoid, saving the world for the time being.

Then it flew down towards Sho, and it became readily apparent to Sho that his initial impressions of the deity were not terribly off. It did look rather a lot like a misshapen cat with Mori's face. It gave him a terrible glare, as though reading his mind, and simply said,

"Hey look, Osaka's already sleeping with her new boyfriend."

Sho awoke with a start, and the face of the god was swiftly replaced by Yomi's grinning visage. "Don't worry, don't worry, I won't tell anyone," she said, and promptly left.

Sho turned around and saw Osaka lying on her desk, asleep with a silly expression that Sho was sure must've put his sleeping face to shame. He reached over and gently woke her up.

"Hey, Osaka, class is over. We… ah… should get going."

"Hmm? Yeah, 'spose we should."

The two got up and started to walk out of Kimura's classroom.

"Hey, Osaka, what did you mean earlier?"

"Earlier?"

"About names, I mean. Why were you so sure when you said that my friends all failed?"

"'cause the names don't match, of course."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh. Well, it's a little weird, yeah?"

_Everything about you is a little weird, Osaka._ "No problem, just tell me."

"It's because their names don't really match up, you know? Like Genji and Tomo. They don't fit together at all. Ken and Yomi, there's absolutely nothing there, can't you see?"

"I'm… afraid I don't."

"No, no, you know, like Ryu and Sakaki. They've got nothing on each other at all, see? Kagura and Marion? Absolutely dreadful together, don't you think? They don't fit."

"I'm… sorry, I must be slow or something but I don't quite follow you."

'Oh, fine. You see our names? Sho and Osaka. See?"

"What am I supposed to be seeing?"

"Sho and Osaka! Shosaka! See? They mesh together all nicely, whereas you can't do the same thing with Genji and Tomo, or Ken and Yomi, or… or with any of your friends, really. They just don't fit, you know?"

Sho stared blankly at Osaka. _Is… is that the entire reason she said yes earlier today? On just… just a letter game? That's what got you to say yes?_

"Actually, now that I think about it, Sakaki and I fit together nicely too. Osakaki, see? That's pretty damn nifty, really. Hey, you know, I fit with Kagura too! OsaKagura, at your service! That one's pretty damn good."

_I… I… I'm not sure if I believe it._

"Hmm. I fit rather well with Tomo too. TomOsaka! I guess she'd be dominant there, though. Well, what about Yomi? Well, I don't really fit with her, unless you wanna say something like OsaKoyomi, although I lose part of my name and she can't use her full name at all."

Sho watched Osaka chatter to herself, and wasn't at all sure how to react. He couldn't think of a single thing to say, and Osaka's way of looking at the world was simply bizarre.

"Tomo and Yomi fit together better anyway, I think. Tomi or Yomo, you see? Each person keeps three letters, the name stays 4 letters long, and either one can go in the front. They're an excellent couple! Actually, now that I think about it, my name fits with Chiyo too. ChiyOsaka, although I'm really not into that kind of thing. Too young for my tastes."

"Osaka… you can't be serious about this, can you? How can you decide things like that over something as simple as a name?"

"What? What do you mean? What's wrong with that?"

"I mean that names are fairly arbitrary, you know, and you're letting them influence your view of the world in such a tremendous fashion."

"Yeah, but it's my view of the world, isn't it?"

"Yes, but… but names don't have that kind of power. They're just… names."

"Yeah, but it's my view of the world, isn't it?"

"So what if it is?"

"Well, think about it this way: How do you know that, for example, these chairs are hard?"

"I touch them, and they feel hard, so they're hard."

"So you can only understand the world through perception."

"Yes."

"So if I have an interesting way of seeing the world, of understanding the world, such as choosing to believe that names have a tremendous impact on how people work, then…"

"Then?"

"Then I'd perceive the world in that way. My world isn't your world, Sho."

"Wh…what?"

"If we can only understand the world through perception, and we don't all perceive the world as the same, then it follows that the world cannot be the same for each person. My world is fundamentally different from your world because I perceive it on my own, in my own way. My way isn't your way, ergo we don't see the same world."

"B…but…"

"So if, to me, names really do make that much of a difference, then in my world names _really do _make that much of a difference. It might not mean a thing in your world, but your world doesn't concern me because it's not _mine_."

Sho gaped at Osaka.

"Actually, now that I think about it, I'd be an excellent lesbian, don't you think? Well, you know, if it wasn't for the whole bit where I was straight, I'd be really awesome to pair with."

Osaka grinned at Sho placidly and went to join her friends. Sho wandered down the hallway, making his way out of the building.

_My world made sense five minutes ago._

Sho wandered out of the school, lost and fairly confused. He wasn't sure if he and Osaka were still a couple at all, but that was a fairly minor worry at the time. For now, Sho was entirely unsure as to whether or not his world really meant anything to anyone else. He tottered, lost, unsure, entirely unattached to anything. The wind blew through the streets of Tokyo, and it carried Sho along with ease.

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**Author's Notes**: And there it is. I'm sorry about the delay in putting this one up, but I kept getting sidetracked by various things. Oh well. I must say that it's been a fun run, really. I don't much care for romance, so I figured this story would be an interesting challenge at best, but it actually did turn out to be rather entertaining. You reviewers are a huge part of that, so I'll say thanks again.

As for this being the final chapter... Yeah, it probably is. As much as I'd love to write an Osaka-only chapter, she spent almost the entire day with Sho, and so there's really not much for her in the way of original content. So, you know, this is Sho and Osaka's chapter, although there weren't any peeks into Osaka's psyche. Actually, I don't really know what to stick in there, unfortunately. I fear I'd probably get her all wrong.

I may do an epilogue of sorts, or maybe a HaLire's day thing where I explain all the little cause-effect things that found their way into the story, like Tomo saying yes to Sho and dumping him shortly afterwards because Osaka kept telling her to get a reason for her haircut. I might do both.

Anyway, just because this is the last "real" chapter doesn't mean that you guys shouldn't review it. Tell me what you think, alright? 


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